18 hospitals in Punjab reprimanded over idle ventilators, delayed drugs purchase

LAHORE: The Punjab health department issued letters of displeasure to heads of six teaching hospitals of the province following reports that 184 ventilators at Intensive Care Units (ICUs) out of 545 (34 per cent) were not functioning, denying healthcare to critical patients.

Similarly, it has shown serious displeasure to the heads of 12 other hospitals for not completing the process for the procurement of medicines and medical devices at their respective institutes.

The actions were initiated by Punjab specialised healthcare and medical education secretary Azmat Mehmood when he was updated about the reports that the medical directors and the heads of the [identified] teaching hospitals of Punjab had shown least interest in discharging the core functions of the institutes to ensure uninterrupted healthcare to patients.

An official privy to the development said that non-functioning of the ventilators have been a gross negligence, requiring strong departmental action against the heads of the relevant units and the institutes.

34pc of ventilators in ICUs of six hospitals dysfunctional; 12 heads get notices for delay in medicines procurement

He said serious complaints have been surfacing every day at the government teaching hospitals that the relatives of the patients in life-threatening injuries or illness usually denied critical care by the ICU staff, saying ’the ventilator is not available.’According to the official letters, the health department observed that 42 out of total 170 ventilators of the Mayo Hospital, Lahore, were not functioning.

Similarly, 25 out of 34 ventilators in the ICU of Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital, Sialkot, 20 out of 71 ventilators in the ICU of Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, 47 out of 129 of Lahore General Hospital, 46 out of 99 ventilators of the Services Hospital, Lahore, and four out of 42 ventilators in the ICU of Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology were dysfunctional.

The health department strictly warned of action against the responsible heads and other relevant doctors/officials for not bothering to make them functional to save lives of the critical patients.

According to a separate official letter, the specialised healthcare and medical education department had notified the Annual Procurement Calendar (APC) in 2021 to ensure timely completion of the procurement process and availability of medicines and medical devices for the patients.

“The progress reported by the hospitals on APC was presented to the authority concerned wherein it showed grave concern on the non-implementation of the calendar in letter and spirit which is affecting the provision of services to the patients visiting the health facilities,” reads the letter.

Following the non-compliance, the health secretary issued letters of displeasure to the medical directors and heads of Mayo Cancer Care Hospital, Lahore, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, Jinnah Burn Centre and Research Centre, Lahore, government teaching hospital, Shahdara, Lahore, Lady Aitchison Hospital Lahore, SFMB Institute of Cardiology, DG Khan, Gujranwala Medical College, Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Faisalabad, Pak Italian Burn Centre Multan, Sahiwal Teaching Hospital and Government Mian Munshi Teaching Hospital, Lahore.“In case of non-availability of the medicines and devices, the heads of the institutes would be held responsible for the non-implementation of the annual procurement calendar 2024-25,” reads the letter.

The health secretary issued separate notices to the heads of all the above-mentioned government hospitals and sought an explanation from them in this respect within 24 hours.

Published in Dawn, November 22th, 2024