NAWABSHAH, Jan 17: The paediatric surgery ward of the People’s Medical College Hospital has no paediatric surgeon at present after one left the job and the other was placed under suspension.

The ward is referring the children needing surgery to Hyderabad or Karachi.

There were two paediatric surgeons in the hospital. One joined the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences after having waited long for promotion and the other, Asst Prof Dr Bashir Soomro, was suspended following an enquiry into amputation of a limb of a two-month-old child.

The inquiry conducted by additional secretary Dr Dabeer Ahmed and Director General of Health Dr Masood Solangi probed charges of negligence by the surgeon who amputated left limb of the child, Dilsher.

The committee recorded statements of the patient’s father and some doctors of the ward but did not make any contact with any surgeon or specialist during the inquiry, it is said.

Prof Dr Bashir Soomro told Dawn that the committee officials did not record his verbal statement nor asked him any question. He was just asked to submit a written statement, he said.

He said that he learnt that the patient had been taken to a quack before he was brought to the hospital and quack had bandaged his left arm with a plastic bag after applying buffalo dung on it.

The child was asked to keep the arm covered with the dung for seven days, which badly affected the limb and developed avulsion injury, he said.

He said that the patient was shifted to orthopaedic ward after he sought opinion from orthopaedic surgeon and the doctors amputated the patient’s limb to save his life.

Assistant Prof Dr Roshan Solangi (general surgeon) and newly appointed in-charge of paediatric surgery ward said that there were some cases, which came under specialised field of a paediatric surgeon only and he could not perform all the surgeries like cleft lip and palate.

Dr Naseer Ahmed Shaikh, Medical Superintendent of PMC Hospital, said that there was no paediatric surgeon in the ward and a general surgeon was looking after its affairs, he said. The general surgeon could not operate for cleft lip or palate because it was a specialty and only a paediatric surgeon could perform it, he added.

PMC Principal Prof Dr Ali Akbar Ghumro said that presence of a surgeon was necessary during the proceedings of the inquiry committee, and he had issued a circular, directing that all the patients of paediatric surgery ward would be examined and operated upon in general surgery ward.

The Nawabshah chapters of Pakistan Medical Association and Society of Surgeons and Doctors Association condemned the suspension of Dr Bashir Ahmed Soomro and Dr Rasheed Lakho.

The bodies’ office-bearers, including Bashir Ahmed Soomro, told journalists that the inquiry conducted by the health department was partial because the hospital had not formed any medical board.

They said that more than 500 seats of doctors were vacant in the hospital and the doctors were working round the clock under unbearable pressure. They demanded immediate withdrawal of the doctors’ suspension orders.