KOHAT, April 25: Health authorities have suspended the dispenser for dereliction of duty, making him a scapegoat, as investigations continued to determine the responsibility for the death of a young boy who was mishandled in the casualty of the women and children hospital.

Dr Khizar Hayat, director of KDA Divisional Medical Complex and Liaquat Memorial Hospital, reserved for women and children, told Dawn on Wednesday that the victim’s family had accused dispenser Hayat Noor of showing irresponsibility during the treatment of the deceased Suleman.

"The victim was brought with a head injury to the emergency by his family on April 21 where Dr Safdar prescribed two injections and bandage on his head injury. At that time Hayat Noor asked an irrelevant person to administer injection. The patient was discharged in healthy condition but died later on at his home due to intense bleeding in his head," he informed.

When asked whether the doctor on duty was responsible for the death of the patient, Dr Hayat while defending his staff said that "any doctor would have adopted the same procedure because Suleman’s condition was normal at that time and as the injury was internal there was no need felt to refer him to Peshawar for neurosurgery and CT scan."

He clarified that the suspension of the dispenser had nothing to do with the death of the patient and he had been punished under the rules which did not permit the trainees to attend patients. There were strict orders that the presence of senior paramedics was necessary round the clock who should themselves handle the patients.

About the health conditions in the district, he said that currently the KDA Hospital was facing shortage of medical staff after the government transferred nine doctors.

Similarly in the past, the government had been repeatedly asked, to appoint a neurosurgeon, specialists for the burns section and provide CT scan facility because Kohat hospitals were located at a central place in the southern NWFP.

"I have sent a summary for the appointment of specialists and provision of CT scan facility in January last and hopefully the staff and machinery will arrive if the budget allowed the provincial government to sanction his demands. Under the present criteria the hospital is not entitled for such facilities".

Here it is important to note that the KDA Medical Complex was placed in category A at the time of construction with a huge cost but due to the inconsistent policies of the successive governments once it was reverted to category C and then finally given category B status few years back.

Although a medical college had been established in the KDA Medical Complex a year back it had not been upgraded to the required level of a complete teaching hospital which include all types of surgical and other medical facilities.

He said that hospitals in Kohat cater to the needs of the patients from Kurram Agency, Orakzai Agency, Darra Adam Khel, Karak, Hangu, Thall and parts of Afghanistan and due to this reason the Al Shifa Trust had established most modern hospital here which also lacks specialised facilities.

He said that he had especially asked for CT scan because hundreds of people had died due to head injuries as a result of accidents on the Indus Highway, which lies close to the Kohat hospitals, due to non availability of the

Neuro-surgery department.

An inquiry is being conducted by the senior medical staff and elected representatives for determining the cause of death of Suleman and the executive district officer, health ,Kohat, Adil Marjan, had asked the submission of the report by Friday next.

The postmortem report had already been submitted to the inquiry committee in which the cause of death of the victim had been showed as intra cerebral hemorrhage which could only be detected with the help of CT scan.