LAHORE: Three people were detained on Thursday when a joint team from the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and the Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (PHOTA) stormed a private hospital in the city’s Ravi Road neighborhood. The accused were allegedly performing illicit kidney transplants.
Nevertheless, during the raid, the Shama Hospital’s owner and a few other employees were able to flee. Per PHC orders, the hospital was cordoned off.
According to official sources, Dr. Hashim, the hospital’s owner, and his spouse, Dr. Farkhanda Hashim, managed the establishment.
Dawn was informed by an informed official that the raiding team also discovered two patients and a donor who had been brought in for an illicit kidney transplant. He said that they were sent right away for treatment to the Services Hospital in Lahore.
According to him, there is suspicion that a complex network is involved in the fraudulent kidney transplant scheme.
The official claims that no evidence of an illicit transplant surgery was discovered at the hospital because, based on insider information, the administration of the facility used to destroy records and other proof in order to evade being investigated by the relevant regulatory bodies.
According to him, investigators are attempting to pinpoint the precise number of procedures carried out at the hospital as well as the surgeons who would do illicit renal transplants.
“We discovered during our investigations that Hashim, the hospital’s owner, is a retired veterinarian,” FIA Director Sarfraz Khan Virk said to Dawn.
He claims that the employees detained during the raid have admitted to taking part in ten kidney transplant operations in all, eight of which were coordinated by Shahzad, an agent.
According to the director of the FIA, the facility that was raided carried out two of these unlawful treatments.
According to him, the FIA is also attempting to ascertain whether the surgeons implicated in the fraud are employed by the government or by private medical facilities.
Speaking with Mr. Virk, hospital staff members who were arrested are being questioned to learn more about other people in the network.
According to a PHC representative, the Commission learned that illicit kidney transplants were being performed at the Shama Hospital using information provided by the Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (PHOTA).
According to the PHC spokeswoman, “the preliminary investigation indicates that neither surgeons nor hospital staff were qualified.”
He claims that Ali Akbar, an operating room assistant at Mian Munshi Hospital, would supposedly set up the team’s kidney transplant procedures at the private facility.The situation is being looked upon independently by the FIA and the PHOTA.
