Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Monday directing the Sheikh Zayed Hospital to reopen its kidney transplant centre within one month, kept the minimum standards set by Human Organ Transplant Authority (HOTA).
The chief justice had taken suo motu notice on the closure of the hospital's kidney transplant centre since January following a restriction imposed by the HOTA due to deaths of two donors.
Former director general of HOTA Dr Faisal Masood told the court that two young healthy donors lost their lives since 2015 during the kidney transplantation process at the centre while 13 recipients/patients had also been died. He said this percentage of the casualties was two times more than the international standards. Dr Faisal also pointed out that the hospital managements had not informed the Hota about the cases and the authority came to know about the death of the donor through its own monitoring system. He said the kidney transplant centre had not been following the standard operating procedure (SOPs) set by the Hota.
Chief Justice Nisar regretted that the condition of health sector in all provinces was not satisfactory. He pointed out that he was very much disappointed after seeing unclean and unhygienic condition of operation theatres at Ayub Hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The chief justice reminded the chief secretary and secretary health that the court wanted to improve the health sector during their existence. "And the court would not tolerate unfair appointments," the chief justice added.
Chief Justice Pakistan expressing his concerns over non-submission of reports regarding the heavy salaries being paid to the doctors in Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute regretted over the deteriorating condition of the instate. "It is very critical that a doctor is being paid Rs 3.5 million salaries and still no operation has been carried out," the CJP, observed.
During the proceedings, Medical Director Dr Amir Yar Khan replying to a court query said that the head of the institute was getting Rs 1.2 million salary while his wife was getting Rs800,000. He also told that private practice was banned for doctors working with the institute therefore the local doctors did not intend to join the institute. The court directed the health department to submit complete record of staff and the budget of the hospital.