LARKANA: Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) Larkana’s Diabetic Foot Ward has been closed since last five months on the directives of former Sindh Health Secretary Dr Fazalullah Pechuho, causing trouble to the patients.
Pechuho had directed officials to establish the same ward in Medicine Department, but the officials could still not comply with his directives. The affected patients are now running from pillar to post to get treatment. This ward was established in the Orthopaedics Surgery Department in 1985, which started working properly in 1989 and continued to provide medical treatment and surgical facilities till April 2018 to those poor patients who were suffering from deadly gangrene disease.
Pechuho directed CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Ali Gohar Dahri to establish a separate ward in Medical Ward-1 where diabetic patients’ OPD had been established so that patients’ sugar level could be controlled at the very outset and when the patient was fit for operation, his amputation might be carried out by orthopaedic doctors and again it should be shifted to the ward where dressing of the patient could be carried out daily by dressers of the Orthopaedic Ward.
Prof Jagdesh Kumar, Head of Orthopaedics Surgery, told this scribe on Tuesday that a meeting was held under health secretary and Benazir Bhutto Medical University (BBMU) former Vice Chancellor, in which it was decided that relevant patients should first be admitted in Medical Unit and then shifted to Ortho Ward for surgery because they cannot maintain his sugar level.
Prof Hakim Ali Abro, Head of Medical Unit-1, said that they had acute shortage of doctors and paramedics, hence, the ward could not be established till trained staff was provided. CMCH MS, Dr Ali Gohar Dahri, said that neither BBMU nor Chandka Medical College (CMC) has post-graduate specialist doctor for diabetes. He said diabetic patients were however being examined at Diabetic OPD by doctors of Medical Unit-I where such patients cannot be admitted.
Insiders said that due to frequent deaths in the Ortho Ward, it was decided to close down the Diabetic Foot Ward because most deaths were occurring there due to high sugar level and other complications as Ortho doctors were unable to control them due to lack of proper knowledge. They said mostly such patients are above 40 years age.
Dr Jahangir Awan, who runs Diabetic OPD, said: “We are running Diabetic OPD only and patients are treated free of cost. Previously, there was OPD for two days and 600 to 700 diabetic patients were attending, but now OPD has been made daily and approximately 150 patients are examined daily. No Diabetic Foot Ward has so far been established due to acute shortage of doctors and paramedics.”
The result is that diabetic foot patients are now roaming from one place to another, but nobody is ready to admit them anywhere in CMCH. There was only one such ward in upper Sindh as the poor patients from Balochistan were also accommodated here who too have been deprived of this essential facility along with those who are either locals or belong to 12 districts around Larkana.
Poverty-ridden patients have demanded of the rulers to take notice of the issue and order establishment of the ward immediately and posting of diabetic specialist either in CMC or BBMU.