Rawalpindi- The carelessness on part of management of Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) has put the lives of dozens of ailing children in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Peadiatric Department at great risk as the management failed to provide 10 imported ICU beds to the department despite a passage of a year and half, reliable sources disclosed to The Nation on Monday.

The shortage of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds has also increased the mortality rate in Paediatric ICU, where currently more than 170 child patients are admitted on ordinary beds for medical treatment, sources added.

According to medical experts, ICU beds are equipped with facility of rest back X-Ray translucent, the device used for conducting X-Ray of patients without shifting them to another machine or X-Ray table.

The ICU beds are imported from Germany and are said to be priced at 2300 Euros each (Rs 3,340, 520).

The items that Medical Superintendent of BBH has to return to supplier include 10 ICU beds with mattress (Model Deka), over bed tables (Model Tablo) and bed side cabinet (Model Soreno Eco), they said.

Sources revealed that the management of BBH had purchased 10 ICU beds from a local supplier called Spectrums Technologies (Pvt) Limited, near Al-Shifa Eyes Trust, Jhelum Road in 2016 as per Paediatric Department Annual Development Scheme 2016. The delivery of consignment was made by the supplier to BBH administration on 8th July 2017 and the beds were kept in store room of the hospital. Sources claimed the beds were inspected by the Bio Medical Engineer on 11th July 2017 and declared the beds okay.

However, the inspection committee of the hospital again inspected the beds on August 29, 2017 and found that back rest X-Ray translucent was missing in the beds. The inspection committee, later on, barred the management from providing these ICU beds to Peadiatric Department besides instructions to ask the company to make arrangements to fix the missing equipments.

Unfortunately, the hospital management, instead of writing a letter to supplier, brushed the issue of grave nature under the carpet leaving hundreds of poor and needy patients in lurch. The sheer negligence requires the attention of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Ahmed Buzdar and Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid.

Sources also claimed the criminal delay on part of BBH management in returning the beds to supplier can cause a loss of more than Rs 3.3 million to the Punjab government.

Sources said the senior and junior doctors working in Peadiatric Department had intimated the management time and again for provision of ICU beds but in vain.

According to sources, the management of BBH only took notice of the matter when high-ups of Peadiatric Department Rawalpindi Medical University and Allied Hospital, wrote a letter to Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Muhammad Umar on 15/9/2018 highlighting the maladies and risks being faced by hundreds of child patients in ICU.

They told the VC that PICU caters to the sick patients being referred from the other hospitals of twin cities and other districts.

They requested VC to look address the issue and order for the provision of these beds to the department at the earliest.

A senior child specialist working in PICU told The Nation on condition of anonymity that the 10 ICU beds have been lying in the store for the past year and a half and not being handed over to Peads Department. “We are keeping sick children on ordinary beds which can enhance mortality rate,” he said. He said the doctors are also admitting 3 to 4 sick children on one bed because of high influx of patients and some time the accompanying mothers also share same beds.

“Unfortunately, in a 100-beds Ward, 150 to 170 patients are admitted in Peads Department of BBH,” he said.

MS BBH Dr Khalid Randhawa, however, when contacted by The Nation for his point of view, said, “We will not accept incomplete assignment from the supplier and will return the beds to supplier,” He said the matter of ICU beds had come into his notice recently after he had assumed charge of MS Office.

Provincial Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid was not available for comments.