KARACHI, June 17: The Sindh Minister for Health, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, has ordered a departmental probe against seven doctors of the Civil Hospital Karachi accused of negligence.

The orders came when the minister paid a surprise visit to the hospital in the small hours of Tuesday. Apart from the emergency ward, he visited various surgical and medical wards.

Dr Ahmed also visited the ICU, surgical and thoracic ward and the medical unit-I and inquired after the health of the patients and went through their case files.

Expressing his displeasure over the poor follow-up and investigation report of a patient, the minister directed the relevant staff to conduct proper follow-ups of the patients admitted to the hospital and to update their files on a regular basis.

Taking strong notice of shortage of paramedics and other administrative irregularities in various wards, the minister ordered the relevant officials to ensure presence of an adequate number of paramedics and senior doctors in each and every ward of the hospital.

He said that the presence of a senior doctor at least of the level of registrar or assistant professor must be ensured at the emergency ward. He inquired about details of implementation of the instructions, which he had issued during his previous visit.

The minister also checked the attendance register of doctors at the surgical ward-II and inquired about the strength of doctors available with the ward.

While visiting the surgical ward-I, he expressed his annoyance over the non-functioning of the intensive care unit (ICU) and the improper distribution of duties among the RMOs. The minister also reviewed the overall security system of the ward.

He expressed his dissatisfaction over the performance of the executive engineer for the slow pace of work on the ICU of Medical Unit-I.

National Epilepsy Centre

After a closure of over 40 days, the National Epilepsy Centre at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre will once again become functional on June 18.

The Centre, established by the National Research Project and Welfare Fund, was closed down by the previous administration of the JPMC.

The new administration of the hospital, through an office order issued on Tuesday, however, allowed the NGO to operate their OPD in the NEC building with immediate effect.

During the period when the NEC remained non-functional, the relevant doctors used to operate OPDs at the medical ward-6.

Free treatment is being provided to the epileptics at the centre in question.—Agencies