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