LAHORE: Mocking the tall claims of Punjab government regarding improvement of the major public healthcare facilities in the provincial capital, the Jinnah Hospital Lahore, one of the main teaching institute of the city, is working at only 70 percent of its capacity, partly because of the revamp project initiated by the last caretaker government, causing innumerable problems for the patients, most of them poor.

Dawn has learnt that that several wards and operation threatres (OTs) of the 1500-bed facility are closed for the last many months, while the poor patients visiting the OPDs are made to wait in long queues for hours to get slips in the extremely hot weather conditions as the central air- conditioning system was not functioning for several months. Moreover, professors seldom visit the OPDs and emergency wards, while for some 40 percent of the diagnostic tests the poor have been left at the mercy of high-cost private labs. Several life-saving medicines are also not not available at the hospital.

For many of the operational issues, insiders blame Medical Superintendent Dr Yahya Sultan, who was suspended from service in Oct 2021, over pathetic healthcare delivery at the facility, but was again posted as MS of the hospital during the caretaker setup in Punjab.

Non-functional AC system adds to patients misery amid heatwave

Sources say that the sufferings of the patients have increased manifold during the last few months.

They say that two out of the four surgical units/wards of the hospital were closed down in the name of ‘revamp programe’ during the caretaker government’s tenure. Most of the patients were either being denied admission or moved to other wards, further burdening the medics and staff nurses working there.

They say the cancer (oncology) ward of the hospital has been non-functional because of the “renovation project” and the highly sensitive patients requiring specialised care have been shifted to the skin ward, putting them at greater risk of contracting infections.In Lahore, only two public sector teaching institutes — Mayo and Jinnah hospitals — have oncology wards, and closure of one of them (in Jinnah Hospital) is a serious issue andshows negligence on part of the health authorities concerned, an official says.

He says that five out of 11 operation theatres (OTs) of different wards of the Jinnah Hospital are also not functioning, adding that the cardiac OT has been closed down for some months and the heart patients are being largely denied admissions.

Similarly, the main eye ward of the hospital has been shut down for renovation since the tenure of the caretaker government, he deplores. The patients requiring eye surgeries are being accommodated in other ward, the official says.

He says that only selective operations are being performed in the OT of the neurosurgery department of the hospital.

About the OPDs of the hospital, he says, the poor patients, including elderly men and women, have to wait in long queues for hours to get slips. He says the staff deputed at the counter stops issuing slips at 12 noon, denying treatment to around 40 percent of the patients waiting for their turn in six to seven queues for hours at the OPD.

The official says that no professor visits the patients in the OPD, who are mostly attended by registrars, medical officers or postgraduate trainees.

He says the situation is also pathetic at the emergency ward of the Jinnah Hospital, where hardly a few professors visit and that too for the ‘protocol patients’ only. He says the emergency ward, where mostly critical patients are brought, is being run by the house officers or the PG students.

About the radiology services, he says that around 40 percent of the tests are being referred to expensive private labs because the department is facing an acute shortage of kits and chemicals required for these tests.

Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Prof Asghar Taqi confirmed to Dawn that because of the revamp project initiated by the caretaker government, many serious issues have surfaced at the hospital.

“The revamp of the hospital has resulted in disruption of healthcare services at the hospital, including closure of some operating theatres”, he say, adding that he has assumed the charge some three weeks back and is trying to get things in order, which is going to take some time.

He further says that the Jinnah Hospital medical superintendent would be the appropriate person to share the details regarding the issues faced by the hospital.

However, despite repeated attempts by this reporter, the MS did not respond to his phone calls.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024