Salman Yousafzai
PESHAWAR: Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar, the largest public hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is under severe accusations of neglecting newborns in its Children’s Emergency unit.
According to sources, newborn patients arriving from other regions are being turned away because of insufficient space with “No Space” noted on their admission forms as the stated reason.
The information also indicated that the Children’s Emergency is currently mostly handled by junior doctors, with senior doctors reportedly absent from the premises. There are allegations that certain senior doctors are issuing instructions via WhatsApp thus the juniors are in a position to make the most vital decisions regarding care.
The matter of infant Hurriyat, a 35-day-old baby, who was brought to the emergency department at 2 AM from Shabqadar with a severe case of breathing problems, is among the incidents that have arisen, as per the reports. Even though the weather was cold, neither a nebulizer nor oxygen was provided. The infant’s relatives report that the junior doctor and bed manager at the medical facility suggested taking the child to a private hospital instead.
Following ninety minutes of distress, the infant’s family members raised objections, prompting involvement from hospital management and security staff. Subsequently, the baby was finally accepted for care after this involvement.
Eyewitnesses assert that this is not the only case. Reports of patients remaining on stretchers for 48 hours or longer have become frequent. Moreover, family members of patients are said to have no choice but to stay on the hospital’s walkways because of insufficient lodging.
Additional claims have surfaced that two truck shipments of blankets and rugs given to provide comfort for the patients’ attendants vanished mysteriously from the hospital’s storage.
It has been highlighted by the people that even after a 13-year rule of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the province, the condition of the emergency departments is still terrible. According to their statement, the provincial government, which is running the show in Lahore, has been only paying lip service to the sector instead of making deep-rooted changes in the healthcare sector.
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