LARKANA:As many as 364 children died in Paeds Medicine Department (Children Hospital), Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH), Larkana during first three months January-March 2020, it was learnt here Saturday.
Of them,130 expired in January, 131 in February and 103 in March. Out of 4020 admissions 509 children Left Against Medical Advice (LAMA), 616 were referred to other hospitals and 2375 discharged.
On other hand, 1,696 children expired during 2019 in the same hospital officially called as Institute of Child Health but popularly known as CMCH’s Children Hospital against admissions of 18,143 children and the death ratio remained approximately 10%.
According to statistics obtained by this Scribe, 177 kids died in January, 192 in February, 118 in March, 132 in April, 118 in May 152 in June, 85 in July, 170 in August, 109 in September, 127 in October, 152 in November and 164 in December 2019. Total admission of child patients during the same year was 18,143 out of which 11,788 were discharged after treatment, the statistics claimed.
As many as 624 children were referred to other hospitals due to unsatisfactory treatment facilities out of which 183 were in November and 294 in December when the hospital had no medicines and all drugs were purchased by the poor patients’ parents including cannula, sources claimed while 2292 patients were LAMA.
LAMA was previously considered disgrace to the Medical Superintendents (MSs) of the relevant government-run hospitals but it has become very common these days as politically influential people occupy these major posts where billions of rupees are annually allocated out of hard earned taxpayers money which has completely ruined the concept of merit and good governance in Sindh so much so that even superior judiciary orders have been daringly and openly violated by the Health Department on one pretext or the other despite availability of senior general cadre doctors of BPS-20.
Junior doctors are posted as MS and District Health Officers (DHOs) across Sindh for ulterior motives most of them are administratively incompetent. Senior doctors of BPS-20 are working under junior doctors of BPS-19, which clearly is highhandedness and killing of merit.
Junior doctors of BPS-19 have been posted as MSs and DHOs in sheer violation of apex court decision as stopgap arrangement which must be taken notice of immediately to establish good governance in the province because enough is enough now and corruption kings should be made accountable for their misdeeds.