RAHIM YAR KHAN: At least 32 passengers were injured in a collision between a sleeper bus and a trailer on the Multan-Sukkur Motorway (N-5) near Muridshakh, close to Punjab-Sindh border, some 60kms from here, early on Friday morning.

According to Rescue 1122 officials, a bus going from Karachi to Lahore hit the trailer from rear side, allegedly when its driver dozed off.

On being informed of the accident, teams of Rescue 1122 and the National Highway and Motorway Police (NHMP) rushed to the spot and shifted the injured passengers to the Shaikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH).

According to sources, despite being informed of a major accident, the hospital had no proper arrangements to handle the injured persons, and their relatives had to face problems in their treatment.

Poor arrangements for treatment of injured passengers at SZMCH

Arshad and Umar Farooq, both relatives of the injured persons, told Dawn when the patients were shifted to the facility, there were no wheelchairs in the emergency ward of the SZMCH and the X-ray room was without an airconditioner where the machine was also not properly working.

They lamented that despite declaring emergency because of the accident, there were only junior doctors to treat the injured persons and none of the professors or consultants was available.

They regretted that the principal and the medical superintendent did not even bother to visit the emergency ward.

They said because of the mess at the hospital, the relatives of many of the injured passengers shifted them to hospitals of Lahore and Multan.

SZMCH focal person Deputy Medical Superintendent (DMS) Rana Muhammad Ilyas did not reply to the repeated calls by this correspondent for his version.

Some of the injured persons deplored that Deputy Commissioner (DC) Salman Khan Lodhi didn’t visit the hospital to check the arrangements for their treatment.

The DC was not available for his comments.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...
Rushed legislation
Updated 06 Nov, 2024

Rushed legislation

For all its stress on "supremacy of parliament", the ruling coalition has wasted no opportunity to reiterate where its allegiances truly lie.
Jail reform policy
06 Nov, 2024

Jail reform policy

THE state is making a fresh attempt to improve conditions in Pakistan’s penitentiaries by developing a national...
BISP overhaul
06 Nov, 2024

BISP overhaul

IT has emerged that the spouses of over 28,500 Sindh government employees have been illicitly benefiting from BISP....