A severe shortage of basic medical facilities and administrative flaws have been revealed at Mayo Hospital Lahore, where thousands of patients could not receive complete treatment despite obtaining token slips.
These details emerged in a report submitted to the court by the Punjab Healthcare Commission.
According to the report, a total of 6,085 tokens were issued on April 9, however only 3,639 patients’ check ups were recorded in the system. Similarly, on April 10, 4,094 tokens were issued but the status of 1,772 patients remained “in process” in the system, clearly indicating administrative mismanagement.
The report submitted to the court stated that more than 40 percent of patients’ data not being entered into the computerized system raises serious questions about service delivery. Furthermore, despite the deployment of 144 to 154 doctors in the OPD, patients faced severe difficulties.
The report also revealed that 64 percent of patients who underwent check-ups were not provided with medicines. Out of 3,639 patients examined on April 9, only 2,664 were prescribed medicines.
According to the report, among them only 63 percent of patients received complete or partial medicines, while the remaining 37 percent were forced to return empty handed even after multiple visits to the pharmacy.
The report stated that in case of a power breakdown, the hospital’s UPS backup lasts only 3 to 4 minutes, which is insufficient for a large teaching hospital.
Due to the availability of only two computers in the surgical OPD, doctors are forced to write prescriptions on the back of thermal slips, while some doctors take pictures of prescriptions using mobile phones and enter the data later, which has been termed a violation of rules.
The delay in timely data entry into the computerized system is also severely affecting the laboratory and radiology departments.
The report recommended that all consultant doctors be made responsible for entering patient data into the system using their own IDs, while the number of computers in OPD and pharmacy should be immediately increased and staff training be made mandatory.
Additional Director of the Healthcare Commission Dr. Rehan Saeed, Deputy Director Atif Masood, and Sohail Qaiser Gul inspected the hospital and compiled the report, which has also been sent to the Secretary Health Punjab for reforms and necessary action.
The report was submitted to the Lahore High Court in response to a writ petition filed by Judicial Activism Panel head Azhar Siddique Advocate, after which serious questions have been raised over the performance of the hospital administration.
