Court slaps Rs20m penalty on clinic in negligence death

A court has ordered a private hospital management to pay Rs20 million in damages to the family of a woman who allegedly died due to medical negligence at their facility. The order by the senior civil judge (District Central) came during the hearing of a damages suit filed by the victim's family against Dr Abdul Ghafoor Medical Centre. The petitioner, Muhammad Afzal Khan, appeared before the court along with his two minor children, while Barrister Nasir Maqsood pleaded on his behalf. The defendants included Dr Ghafoor Medical Centre, Dr Abdul Haseeb Siddiqui, and Dr Uzma Saif. According to the petition, the woman was admitted to a hospital for childbirth, where she was allegedly not provided a timely blood transfusion and adequate medical care. The petition further stated that the patient was shifted to another hospital in critical condition, where she later passed away. It was also contended that the hospital lacked essential emergency and ventilator facilities. The petitioner maintained that the concerned gynaecologist left the hospital immediately after conducting the surgery and returned after several hours, by which time the patient's condition had worsened. The court remarked that the absence of ICU facilities for a C-section procedure amounted to serious negligence. It further observed that failure to control excessive bleeding in time reflected professional misconduct, adding that standard medical protocols were not followed. Subsequently, the court ordered the medical centre to pay Rs20million as compensation to the bereaved family. Notices issued over non-implementation of anti-rape law.  The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday issued notices to the provincial law secretary and NADRA's director general on a petition seeking implementation of the anti-rape law in cases involving sexual violence against women and children. During the hearing, petitioner's counsel, Bariq Mansoor Advocate, submitted that the Anti-Rape (Trial and Investigation) Act, 2021 has yet to be effectively implemented. He argued that no comprehensive database of sexual offenders has been established, while an effective system for in-camera trials is also lacking. Moreover, no proper framework has been developed for providing legal assistance to victims.