Compensation for the families of 261 dengue fever victims, who had lost their lives during the worst-ever epidemic of the disease last year, has either been delayed or denied by the Punjab government.
Hospital-based mortality review committees, the Dengue Experts Advisory Group (DEAG) and committees constituted at the DG Health and Health Department levels for the verification and confirmation of genuine cases for financial assistance have brought no relief to families of scores of diseased patients.
The official figure provided to Dawn by Lahore (EDO) Dr Inamul Haq reveals that the number of deaths of dengue patients was almost
double than the figure announced by health authorities shortly after the epidemic.
“We have issued so far Rs500,000 cheque each to 255 patients who died of dengue virus”, Dr Inam said.
He said the health department had received 311 more cases of those patients who died of dengue virus for financial assistance and of these 261 were still under the verification process.
Similarly, families of patients who had died in the drugs reaction scam are also facing the same situation as out of Rs256 million total financial assistance released by the Punjab government, the authorities could dispense only Rs118 million to the families of victims.
According to official figures, out of 908 affected patients 183 had died of the drugs reaction in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) scam.
Health department section officer Dr Nasir told Dawn that the department had released Rs236.3 million to the Lahore district coordination officer for disbursement to families of patients who died in the PIC drugs reaction.
He said the financial assistance of Rs20 million was also released to the Punjab Health Director-General to distribute it among those families of PIC patients who died in other districts of the province.
“The Health Department has forwarded a summary to the chief minister on April 10 wherein it has been mentioned that the DCO office has dispensed Rs109.8 million among families of PIC victims out of total Rs236.3 million released for the financial assistance while the DG Health has disbursed Rs9.5 million among the legal heirs of patients in connection with the same scam”, Dr Nasir said.
As is evident from the official figures provided by the section officer, the legal heirs of scores of dengue virus and PIC scam victims are still struggling to get financial assistance since these two major tragedies had taken a heavy toll of patients, particularly in Lahore.
Complicated procedural formalities and hectic schedule of officials concerned designated for the verification of cases have caused the delay in the disbursement of financial assistance to legal heirs.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced a financial assistance of Rs500,000 for each patient who either died of dengue fever or the drugs reaction.
Families are lamenting over the delay of compensation owing to the apathy of government officials.
Elderly woman Safia Bibi, who lost her only son in dengue epidemic, says: “It is too easy to die of a viral disease like dengue but too difficult to get compensation from the government which is responsible for the spread of the virus.”
Her 27-year-old son, Muhammad Saad, had died of dengue virus in Wapda Hospital on Oct 10, 2011. Wapda Hospital MS Dr Akmal Faiz Bhatty had confirmed that Saad died of dengue fever and issued a letter on Feb 2012 the copy of which is available with Dawn. The name of Saad was also mentioned in the officially prepared list of dengue victims.
Saad’s father Bashir Ahmad of Multan Road suffered leg fracture in September 2011 and remained hospitalized for four months.
Since then Safia had been pursuing the case of financial assistance by visiting offices of the EDO, DG health, Civil Secretariat and other officials concerned, but to no avail.
Similarly, a job-seeker youth who had lost his parents in the PIC drugs reaction has been visiting the offices of the Health Director-General for two months for financial assistance.
His father Saleemullah of Hafizabad and mother Iffat Saleem were cardiac patients and had been taking medicines from the PIC.
According to official documents, the PIC administration and hospitals’ concerned where deaths took place had verified their cases by issuing death certificates.
The DG office has assured the youth of financial assistance in the case of his mother but it has rejected the case of his father despite the fact that official documents carrying registration (No 2010-070749) of the patient categorically mentioned the cause as ‘death due to medicine reaction’.
Legal heirs like Safia Bibi could not meet Services Hospital principal Prof Dr Faisal Masood, who is heading DEAG, during her frequent visits there in pursuance of her case due to his (Dr Masood’s) hectic schedule.
Most of them are those whose patients had either died at homes or private health facilities, but there is no transparent mechanism for the verification of their cases.
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