LAHORE: A woman gave birth to a baby at a roadside near the Raiwind Tehsil Headquarters Hospital after she was reportedly refused admission to the health facility on the pretext of non-avail-ability of a gynaecologist.

Sameera Bibi was taken to the 60-bed hospital by her husband Muhammad Amir, a brick kiln labourer, at around Sam on Tuesday after she experienced severe labour pains. The staff on duty asked Amir to revisit despite knowing that Sameera was in labour.

According to initial inquiries, Sameera was denied admission to the hospital by Lady Health Visitor (LHV) Sumera, who claimed that no gynaecologist was available at that time.

Amir tried to convince the staff to admit his wife, but to no avail. Assoon as the couple left, Sameera fainted at a roadside and gave birth to a baby girl, exposing the government`s claims of serving the poor at public sector hospitals.

The health and district administrations took action as soon as the Punjab authorities found out about the incident. They shif ted Sameera and her newborn to a teaching hospital from where she was discharged af ter initial treatment.

Established with Rs700 million, the 60-bed THQ hospital had been inaugurated by the chief minister lastyearand since thenhe had visited the facility twice to overseeprovision of healthcare.

An official privy to the information said there was only one consultant gynaecologist, Dr Asma Sarwar, at the hospital. She was supposed to work during official hours and be available on call at night. Under an agreement, she was being paid Rs110,000 per month in addition to Rs60,000 for night duty.

Medical Superintendent Dr Amir Muf ti told the visiting inquiry officers that Dr Asma had never visited the hospital at night citing that no woman in any such health facility attended patients atnight.

The MS`s statement proved true when the inquiry team found no record of the said gynaecologist`s visit during night since her joining the hospital.

The official claimed that Dr Mufti tried to tamper with official records (duty roaster) shortly after the woman gave birth outside the hospital.

Services of the THQ hospital had been outsourced to the University of Lahore under an agreement withthe Punjab government. The management had miserably failed to run the facility up to the mark as per the agreement. And the government is believed to have terminated the agreement with the university following Tuesday`s incident.

Since the establishment of the hospital, the official said, the government had sacked two medical superintendents over failure to provide healthcare to patients.

A spokesperson for the health department said Dr Asma, Dr Mufti and LHV Sumera had been suspended. He said action was takenagainst them during the visit of health minister Khwaja Imran Nazir and other senior officials concerned to the hospital to investigate the incident.

Earlier this year, Zohra Bibi, 60, of Tibbi Kambovan, had died on the floor of Jinnah Hospital in Lahore because there were no beds available at the medical facility.

Investigation into the case had revealed that Zohra had been denied treatment by two major facilities, including Kasur DHQ and Lahore General hospitals, before she had visited Jinnah Hospital.