Tag: hospital

  • Misuse of Sehat Card to be investigated after private hospitals make millions

    Misuse of Sehat Card to be investigated after private hospitals make millions

    The latest data regarding Sehat Sahulat Programme facility reveals that nearly 80 per cent of Caesarean section (C-section) procedures covered by the Programme in private hospitals across Punjab were conducted by obstetricians, potentially resulting in significant financial gains at the expense of taxpayers.

    Figures from 2016 to January 2024 reveal that private hospitals claimed approximately Rs16.36 billion for C-section and normal delivery procedures, with a substantial portion going to private healthcare facility owners.

    State Life Insurance Corporation subsidies were offered for various medical procedures under the program. Punjab Health Initiative Management Company (PHIMC) oversaw healthcare coverage, with 668,238 C-sections performed, predominantly in private facilities.

    This discrepancy between private and government hospital procedures has raised concerns among medical observers, prompting calls for an independent investigation.

    Similarly, payments to private hospitals for C-sections and normal deliveries totaled Rs16.36 billion from 2016 to January 2024, with a significant portion claimed in 2022 and 2023, leading to a ban on C-sections at private hospitals by the caretaker Punjab government in mid-2023 due to excessive claims.

    The major claim of Rs7.19 billion was recorded in 2023, Rs8.16 billion in 2022, Rs610 million in 2021, Rs168 million in 2020 while another amount was calculated for the rest of the years.

  • Agha Ali rushed to hospital after wrapping up show

    Agha Ali rushed to hospital after wrapping up show

    Well-known actor Agha Ali has appealed to his fans to pray for his recovery.

    He put up a photo on his Instagram story where he can be seen lying in a hospital bed with a drip hooked onto his arm. In the caption he wrote, “I finished the show even though I had a high fever, and then I went directly to the hospital.”
    He addressed his fans, saying, “I need your prayers.” Lastly, he thanked his fans and said, “No matter what, I’ll always do my best to improve.”

  • Saif Ali Khan admitted to hospital for surgery

    Saif Ali Khan admitted to hospital for surgery

    Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has been admitted at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai for surgery.
    It has been reported in Indian media that he has a fractured knee and shoulder, but the details of how that happened are not known yet. There has been no official statement from Saif’s team about the incident.

    Saif’s wife, actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, is with him at the hospital. They reached the medical facility at around 8 a.m. on Monday, January 22. Despite trying to get a response from Saif’s team, there has been no official comment about the situation.

    Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor are parents to Two children, Taimur and Jehangir Ali Khan. Saif was previously married to actress Amrita Singh, with whom he has a daughter, actress Sara Ali Khan, and a son, Ibrahim Ali Khan.

  • World AIDS Day: More than 9,000 new HIV cases reported in Pakistan this year

    World AIDS Day: More than 9,000 new HIV cases reported in Pakistan this year

    December 1 is marked as World AIDS Day with people and communities around the globe showing solidarity with those living with HIV, raising awareness, while also remembering the ones who lost their lives battling the illness.

    According to the Ministry of Health, 9,284 new HIV patients have been diagnosed in Pakistan in 2023.

    About 900 to 1,000 new cases of HIV are reported every month, whereas earlier in 2022, more than 10,000 cases of HIV were reported.

    Most of the cases are reportedly documented in Punjab and Sindh, while people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are also diagnosed positive for HIV.

    Additionally, around 40 to 50 new cases are being reported every month from Islamabad and surrounding areas, including Kashmir.

    Most cases of HIV infections are found accidentally during routine tests, indicating that Pakistan needs to increase specific HIV testing.

  • Israeli army arrests Al-Shifa Hospital director; Gaza Health Ministry blames WHO

    Israeli army arrests Al-Shifa Hospital director; Gaza Health Ministry blames WHO

    While the terms of a ceasefire deal are being finalized Israel and Hamas, the Israeli army has reportedly arrested the director of al-Shifa Hospital on Thursday.

    According to media reports, hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya and several other medical personnel have been detained as Israel continues its Gaza offensive.

    The arrest has been reported by Khalid Abu Samra, a department chief at the hospital via AFP news agency as well as the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

    “Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa medical complex, has been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. And even earlier, two Palestinian paramedics had been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from southern Gaza.

    “This gives a clear sign that there is no immunity inside the Gaza Strip, neither for medical workers, civil defence crews or even journalists, as the attacks have reached all classes in the Palestinian community.”

    Al Jazeera has also revealed that according to spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra, Gaza’s Health Ministry has decided to put a halt on coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the evacuation of wounded people and medical staff.

    He claims that Israel and the UN are responsible for the arrest of medical personnel, further stating that Israeli forces have mistreated medical staff and patients.

  • 29 premature babies evacuated from Gaza arrive in Egypt: media

    29 premature babies evacuated from Gaza arrive in Egypt: media

    AFP – Cairo, Egypt: Twenty-nine premature babies arrived in Egypt on Monday, Egyptian media said, after they were evacuated from Gaza’s largest hospital which has become a focal point of Israel’s war with Hamas.

    The infants were evacuated Sunday from the Al-Shifa hospital, which the World Health Organization has described as a “death zone” as Israel seeks to uncover what it says are Hamas bases in tunnels underneath the facility.

    An initial 31 babies were reported evacuated from Al-Shifa to another Gaza clinic and it was not immediately clear why only 29 arrived in Egypt.

  • Al Shifa hospital forcefully evacuated within hours on Israeli orders

    After days of attacking Al Shifa hospital in Gaza and raiding it room by room, the Israeli military has now forcefully evacuated premises on Saturday.

    The hospital’s Director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told Al Jazeera that the hospital is now “completely deserted” while the few patients and victims left are lying in corridors.

    He added that those in dire conditions, including newborns and kidney patients, “will die imminently if they are not evacuated,” further stating that Israeli soldiers “are in total control” and that the remaining medical staff “cannot move freely”.

    Earlier today,the Israeli military had ordered everyone — including doctors, patients and displaced people — to evacuate in an hour.

    This, as reported by Al Jazeera, created a sense of panic as it is impossible to flee Al Shifa in such a brief period. A Palestinian health official said that evacuees were “ordered at 9am [7:00 GMT] to leave while waving a white handkerchiefs and walk in a single-file line.”

    Medical staff and others present at Al Shifa revealed that there are patients who cannot be abandoned, including those who cannot walk.

    Munir al-Barsh, director-general of Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that about “450 patients were evacuated, while about 120 patients were left behind with five doctors, including the director and a few nurses, because they were immobile.”

    Additionally, a list of critical patients has been given to the Red Cross so they can be taken to Egypt for treatment.

    Adnan al-Barsh, head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa Hospital, stated that Israeli snipers are in and around the hospital compound, saying that “We were adamant on not leaving without our patients … we were forced to leave at gunpoint.”

    The Israeli army denied issuing the evacuation order, however, all officials and other people at Al Shifa have described the total opposite of Israeli claims.

  • Israel raids Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital: Day two

    Israel raids Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital: Day two

    Al Jazeera reports that a building for specialised surgeries at al-Shifa Hopital in Gaza has been fully wrecked from the inside while Israeli forces bombed a warehouse containing medicine and medical equipment inside the hospital.

    Reportedly the Israeli military “literally tore it apart – all the partitions, walls between the rooms, and all the medical equipment inside the building have been completely destroyed”, writes Al Jazeera.

    It has also been revealed that 200 people were “blindfolded and interrogated and taken to unknown areas; their fate is unknown.”

    Witnesses present inside the hospital informed Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers stripped 30 people, leading them to the courtyard of the hospital.

    Al-Shifa hospital was surrounded by Israeli armed forces for the past few days, and is now being raided by Israeli soldiers.

    Israeli bulldozers have also fully knocked down the southern entrance to al-Shifa Hospital and all vehicles in its courtyard.

    Yesterday, BBC spoke to a journalist inside Al Shifa hospital who said that Israeli soldiers are checking through all the areas and interrogating people.

    Al Jazeera also reported that the Israeli military has stormed into the hospital’s main buildings “under the cover of heavy gunfire and tank shells”. They are reportedly inside the emergency department, the specialised surgeries department and the maternity ward.

  • Deadly attacks, decomposing bodies, lack of services: What we know about day 39

    Deadly weapons used against Gaza

    The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has revealed that Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip since October 7, equivalent to two nuclear bombs.

    In comparison, the United States dropped the Little Boy nuclear bomb on Hiroshima during World War II, yielding 15,000 tonnes of high explosives and wrecking everything within a 1.6km (1-mile) radius.

    Plan to bury decomposing bodies in Al Shifa compound

    Reuters reported that a doctor Ahmed Al Mokhallalati and Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra have claimed in separate telephone interviews that more than 100 dead bodies are presently unburied and have begun to decompose, “creating an acute sanitary crisis”.

    “We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don’t have any cover or protection from the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), but we have no other options, the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose,” said Qidra. “The men are digging right now as we speak.”

    Qidra claims the number of bodies accumulated at Al Shifa at about 100 whereas Mokhallalati said it was about 120.

    More than half of Gaza hospitals non operational

    According to the World Health Organization, 22 of 36 hospitals in Gaza are out of service “due to lack of fuel, damage, attacks and insecurity”.

    While calling for an immediate ceasefire, the UN’s health agency also warned that the remaining 14 hospitals “have barely enough supplies to sustain critical and life saving surgeries and provide inpatient care, including intensive care”.

    Water supplies on hold due to lack of fuel

    The United Nations reported that infrastructure for the operation of water and waste management in southern Gaza is no longer functioning.

    “Due to lack of fuel, public sewage pumping stations, 60 water wells in the south, the two main desalination plants in Rafah and the Middle Area, the two main sewage pumps in the south, and the Rafah wastewater treatment plant have all ceased operations,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated, citing the organisation’s Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.

    “Coupled with the shutdown of municipal sanitation work, this is posing a serious threat to public health, increasing the risk of water contamination and the outbreak of diseases.”

    At least 42 journalists killed since October 7

    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has revealed that at least 42 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7 as Israel intensified its attacks, stating that the period was the most deadly for journalists since the CPJ’s data collection began in 1992.

    Credits: Al Jazeera

  • Al-Shifa under attack; several at risk of dying: What we know about day 36

    On Saturday, Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 39 children, including babies in incubators in the ICU of Al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza are at risk of dying at any moment as there is no oxygen to keep them alive. Simultaneously, hospital premises has been targeted with heavy air and artillery bombardment by Israeli forces.

    Al Jazeera spoke to Gaza Deputy Health Minister Dr. Youssef Abu Alreesh who was inside al-Shifa Hospital while Israeli forces surrounded the facility.

    “No one is able to move around the compound, snipers are stationed all over the place in addition to the drones that target and kill any moving person.

    Part of the hospital was shelled and part of the building caught fire, we fear it will engulf the whole compound,” he said.

    He also said that when some families tried to leave, they were targeted by Israeli forces, resulting in their bodies lying outside the hospital that staff have not been able to retrieve.

    Israeli army used white phosphorus on al-Shifa: Palestine health minister

    Palestinian health minister, Mai al-Kaila, claims that Israel used white phosphorus shelling on Al -Shifa.

    “This is an internationally banned weapon. We are wondering who is responsible for holding Israel to account for shelling al-Shifa Hospital with white phosphorus,” she told a news conference in Ramallah, adding that Israeli forces were committing a “genocide” in Gaza.

    “Inevitable death has become the fate of patients in Gaza hospitals – and we hold Israel, the United Nations and the international community responsible for that.”

    Internally displaced Gazans

    In conversation with Al Jazeera, the communications director of the UN’s Palestine relief agency UNRWA, Juliette Touma, said between 50,000 and 80,000 have left their homes since November 4, fleeing from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip.