{"id":4631,"date":"2025-07-09T19:15:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T19:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/07\/09\/maroof-hospital-treatment-denial\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T19:19:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T19:19:39","slug":"maroof-hospital-treatment-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/?p=4631","title":{"rendered":"Boy Dies After Alleged Treatment Denial at Maroof Hospital: Lawmakers Decry Negligence, Dismiss Hospital\u2019s \u201cExcuses\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boy Dies After Alleged Treatment Denial at Maroof Hospital: Lawmakers Decry Negligence, Dismiss Hospital\u2019s \u201cExcuses\u201d
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>Nadeem Tanoli<\/em>
\n<\/b>
\nIslamabad \u2014 A 13-year-old boy suffering from a life-threatening abdominal condition died on the way to a public hospital after allegedly being denied treatment at\u00a0Maroof International Hospital<\/strong>\u00a0due to his family\u2019s inability to pay. The heartbreaking case, described as \u201ccriminal negligence\u201d by lawmakers, formed the emotional and explosive opening to a recent meeting of the National Assembly\u2019s Sub-Committee on Health.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s CT scan had confirmed\u00a0peritonitis and intestinal perforation<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 a medical emergency. Yet, instead of being stabilized and treated, Maroof staff reportedly\u00a0asked the family to leave and go to a public facility<\/strong>, saying they couldn\u2019t proceed without payment. The child\u00a0died in transit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

An earlier inquiry had called this \u201cmal-administration\u201d and fined the hospital Rs. 4 lakhs. But Dr. Amjad Ali Khan, the committee convener, was unequivocal in his outrage. \u201cThis was not mismanagement,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was medical negligence \u2014 a criminal act.\u201d He demanded to know how officials would react\u00a0if it had been their own child<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The committee had already directed the\u00a0Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority (IHRA)<\/strong>\u00a0to re-open the case. But in a move that infuriated the panel, IHRA\u2019s representative claimed the case was now\u00a0\u201ctime-barred.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Lawmakers were appalled. Dr. Amjad accused IHRA of being \u201cnon-serious\u201d and\u00a0hiding behind paperwork to avoid accountability.<\/strong>\u00a0The committee has now formally recommended a re-inquiry.<\/p>\n

Adding to the pattern of concern,\u00a0MNA Dr. Zahra Wadood Fatemi<\/strong>\u00a0shared a personal account of\u00a0near-negligence involving her husband at Maroof.<\/strong>\u00a0An asthma patient, he was about to receive an IV injection without any prior testing. \u201cHe was shivering, saying he couldn\u2019t see clearly,\u201d she said. \u201cI stepped in just in time.\u201d The attending doctor later admitted they\u00a0should have checked first.<\/strong>\u00a0For Dr. Zahra, the near-miss was chilling \u2014 especially because\u00a0her brother-in-law had previously died in another hospital under similar circumstances.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI knew the signs. I stopped it before it happened again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Instead of addressing the specifics,\u00a0Maroof\u2019s CEO, Haroon Saeed<\/strong>, offered a general defense that struck many as tone-deaf. He described the hospital as a\u00a0\u201cside business\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0for his family, calling it their\u00a0\u201cleast profitable\u201d and a \u201cheadache.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0While trying to push back against the image of private hospitals \u201cprinting money,\u201d his remarks appeared dismissive in the context of a child\u2019s death and a series of complaints. He asked the committee to consider\u00a0systemic issues<\/strong>\u00a0and not just blame individual hospitals. But lawmakers insisted that\u00a0systemic failure does not excuse personal tragedy<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 especially when it is avoidable.<\/p>\n

Mr. Saeed expressed a\u00a0willingness to collaborate<\/strong>\u00a0with IHRA and the health committee, proposing the formation of a pricing committee that includes private hospitals. He said this could improve transparency and help justify hospital costs. However, the lawmakers made it clear that\u00a0collaboration cannot come at the cost of delayed accountability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to shift focus, Saeed also shared a story about\u00a0taking his own injured relative to Shifa Hospital<\/strong>, where he received specialized surgery not available at Maroof at the time. But the committee was not interested in success stories from elsewhere \u2014 especially not while a grieving family was still waiting for justice.<\/p>\n

Maroof\u2019s leadership tried to frame the challenges of private healthcare as complex and burdensome. But the committee\u2019s position was clear:\u00a0no complexity justifies abandoning a child or endangering a patient.<\/strong>\u00a0Lawmakers are now pressing forward with demands for a full re-investigation, stricter clinical audits, and stronger penalties for hospitals that\u00a0fail to act in life-or-death moments.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boy Dies After Alleged Treatment Denial at Maroof Hospital: Lawmakers Decry Negligence, Dismiss Hospital\u2019s \u201cExcuses\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 Nadeem Tanoli Islamabad \u2014 A 13-year-old boy suffering from a life-threatening abdominal condition died on the way to a public hospital after allegedly being denied treatment at\u00a0Maroof International Hospital\u00a0due to his family\u2019s inability to pay. The heartbreaking case, described …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1620,1174,1621,1624,1619,1623,1622,1627,1626,1625],"class_list":["post-4631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-education","tag-childdeathcase","tag-healthcareaccountability","tag-ihrainquiry","tag-justiceforpatient","tag-maroofhospitalnegligence","tag-medicalnegligence","tag-pakistanhealthcrisis","tag-parliamentdemandsaction","tag-patientrightspakistan","tag-privatehospitaloversight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4635,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions\/4635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}