HYDERABAD, March 11: Patients suffered in the civil hospital as doctors, house officers and post-graduate students boycotted work on Saturday in protest against registration of a criminal case against six doctors including senior professor Dr Pushpa Srichand.

Doctors closed the work in the outdoor-patient department.

A hospital official said that several operations could not take place due to protest by doctors.

The doctors gathered in the premises of the hospital and marched up to the OPD.

They also blocked the main road for some time.

Our Bureau reports: Speaking at a press conference at the press club here on Friday, Prof (Dr) Pushpa of the Liaquat Medical University has defended herself and her colleagues against being accessory to the death of Shahzadi in the university hospital.

Dr Chandra, Dr Nasreen Shah and other doctors and professors were also present.

She rejected an inquiry report into the matter and demanded that a fresh inquiry should be conducted by senior doctors from outside the LUMHS.

Giving the background, she said that on Feb 13, 2005, the Caesarean operation of Ms Shahzadi had been performed by competent and authorized surgeon Dr Sunita, assisted by Dr Sadaf. She said Dr Aftab had handled the instrument trolley and senior doctor Nasreen Shah had supervised the surgery. She said she herself and Dr Chandra were not present in the hospital after duty hours.

She said it was the responsibility of the staff nurse to count instruments on the trolley before the start of the operation and closure of the woman’s abdomen. She said that since the nurse on duty was absent from the operation theatre, the instrument trolley was handled by Dr Aftab because of urgent need to save the life of the baby.

She said that on scrutinizing the case record of Ms Shahzadi, it was found that the operation and the post-operative period was uneventful and the woman and the baby left the ward on her request on Feb 15, in a satisfactory condition.

Prof Pushpa said there was no complain of any sort from the patient or her relatives and she never returned for any complication to the ward.

She said that as per the inquiry report, Ms Shahzadi was brought to the surgical ward-III a year later on Feb 15 with abdominal pain and she went home the same day. She said the woman was again hospitalized on Feb 18 for acute pain and the X-ray conducted on Feb 19 revealed a clamp in her abdomen. She said the woman underwent exploratory laparotomy by Prof Abdul Sattar Memon.

Prof Pushpa claimed that she learnt about the incident for the first time when it was reported in the media on Feb 20. She alleged that the inquiry committee had conducted the confidential inquiry in presence of the media and had given ‘running commentary.’

She said that according to medical rules, the patient should have been referred to her unit if there were any complaints or complications relating to previous surgery. She, however, said the patient was admitted to surgical unit-III and was handled there till her death. She said neither the chart/investigations nor any information about the history of the patient had been shared with her.

She said the entire direction of the inquiry was moulded against the surgeon and the in-charge of the unit, who were not responsible for the incident. She claimed that in the inquiry report, facts had been distorted to save the staff nurse.

She said the inquiry report had highlighted that Ms Shahzadi was a high-risk patient and the surgery should have been performed by senior doctors.

Prof Pushpa, however, said that the doctors present on duty were highly qualified, competent and authorized to perform Caesarean.

She said the inquiry had ignored underlying medical problems that the patient was suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis, collapsed lung, chalilithasis and hepatitis-C (positive) for which she was readmitted to the surgical unit-III.