Lahore hospitals face acute shortage of anaesthetics.

LAHORE -- A critical shortage of anaesthetics has hit the public as well as private hospitals of Lahore hard allegedly due to the gross incompetence and negligence of the health authorities concerned.

Because of the shortage, the doctors are postponing hundreds of surgeries at these hospitals, putting the lives of the critical patients, especially in emergency wards, at risk.A senior official says the health secretary is misstating the facts by declaring that only the Services Hospital Lahore is facing an acute shortage of anaesthetics.

However, he says, all major government sector hospitals are trying hard to procure the drug from the market after the vendors stopped official supplies citing historic rise in the US dollar's rate against the local currency.

Hundreds of surgeries postponed

The suppliers have refused to provide more drug consignments at the price decided while signing of the contracts with the government, the official says, adding that taking notice of the situation health secretary Ali Jan has directed the heads of these institutes to try and arrange the drug on their own instead of making the issue public.

Consequently, he says, the crisis that started two weeks back has deepened due to the critical shortage of the Isoflurane drug in the government hospitals of Lahore. Isoflurane is approved by the Federal Drug...