Health associations ask FIA to probe ‘irregularities’ in procurement of surgical robots

Urging the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe procurement of robotic surgery systems worth billions of rupees for the public health facilities in Sindh, healthcare professionals on Friday called for provision of basic health services, equipment and medicines at health facilities throughout the province.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Friday, they said that due to high cost of maintenance and consumables, no private healthcare facility in Pakistan was using robots for simple surgeries and alleged that robotic surgery systems worth billions were being procured to get ‘kickbacks’ from companies.

“We, the concerned doctors of Sindh, have written a letter to the FIA and some other investigating agencies to probe the procurement of surgical robots worth billions of rupees by the Sindh government. We have asked them to look into the beneficiaries of the deal and those who benefitted from companies providing surgical robots to health facilities in Sindh,” Dr Akram Sultan, renowned cardiologist and former director health Karachi said.

He was accompanied by representatives from the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Young Doctors Association (YDA), Society of Surgeons Pakistan (SSP) and other bodies of healthcare professionals.

Dr Sultan announced that doctors would also approach the superior judiciary, including the high courts and Supreme Court, to prevent the ‘misuse of public money’ in the health department.

Condemning the language used against Sindh Caretaker Health Minister Dr Saad Khalid Niaz by Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar, he said words used against Dr Niaz, who is a world renowned physician and interventional gastroenterologist, were derogatory and the CM should take back his words and apologise.

PIMA representative Dr Abdullah Muttaqi said when a summary to procure four more robotic surgery systems came to the caretaker health minister, he refused to let the deal materialise arguing that funds worth billions of rupees should be spent on primary healthcare, provision of medicines and improving conditions of emergency and trauma centres where thousands of patients suffered daily due to lack of medicines and supplies.

“There are hundreds of trained and qualified surgeons at public health facilities in Sindh but these hospitals lack medical supplies and medicines required for surgeries. Daily, hundreds of patients are asked to procure medicines and medical supplies from private pharmacies but instead of providing medicines and surgical supplies, purchasing robots worth billions of rupees indicates that there is something fishy,” Dr Muttaqi maintained.

Former PMA secretary general Dr Qaiser Sajjad expressed serious reservations over the procurement process in the health department, saying procurement worth tens of billions of rupees had been made by the provincial health department but patients were still facing difficulties in getting medicines and honourable treatment at health facilities in the province.

He said public money was being wasted on machines, which remained unutilised in the case of robotic system for the Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, which got rusted as there was no trained person to use the machine while there was also no system for the maintenance of these expensive machines.

“In a country where millions of cases of waterborne diseases are reported every month and people don’t have vaccines for the treatment of diphtheria and prevention of rabies, wasting billions of rupees on robotic surgery equipment is a criminal offence,” he said and called for spending more money for prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Pulmonologist and former PIMA president Dr Sohail Akhtar said that as four robotic surgery machines were already functional at some centres, there was no need to procure more such machines as basic health facilities and services were more important for the poor.

YDA leader Dr Waris said that at a time when CT scanners and MRI machines were not functional at the Civil Hospital Karachi, purchasing robotic surgery machines worth billions was not a wise decision.

Several other doctors and healthcare professionals also supported the stance taken by the caretaker health minister and vowed to continue supporting him. Radiologist Dr Muhammad Azeem, Dr Mushtaq Rajpar, Dr Rasheed Lakhir and others also spoke and urged the investigating agencies to probe irregularities in the procurement process by the health department.