Summary Report reveals severe service gaps, missing patient data and medicine shortages at Mayo Hospital Lahore.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – A detailed report submitted to the Punjab Healthcare Commission has uncovered serious shortcomings in basic medical services and administrative management at Mayo Hospital Lahore, raising concerns over patient care and operational efficiency at one of the city’s largest teaching hospitals.
The findings, presented before the Lahore High Court, reveal that thousands of patients were left untreated despite receiving official tokens for consultation. According to the report, 6,085 tokens were issued on 9th April, yet only 3,639 patients were recorded as examined in the system. On 10 April, 4,094 tokens were issued, but 1,772 cases remained marked as “in process”, pointing to significant administrative disarray.
The report highlights that more than 40 per cent of patient data was not entered into the computerised system, raising serious questions about service delivery and record-keeping practices. Despite the deployment of between 144 and 154 doctors in the outpatient department, patients continued to face delays and incomplete treatment processes.
Medication shortages further compounded the situation. Among the 3,639 patients examined on 9 April, only 2,664 were prescribed medicines. Of those, just 63 per cent received full or partial medication, while the remaining 37 per cent were unable to obtain prescribed drugs despite repeated visits to the hospital pharmacy.
Operational weaknesses were also identified in infrastructure and digital systems. In the event of a power outage, the hospital’s uninterrupted power supply system was found to provide backup for only three to four minutes, a duration deemed inadequate for a major tertiary care facility.
In the surgical outpatient department, limited resources have forced staff to adopt irregular practices. With only two computers available, doctors were reported to be writing prescriptions on the back of thermal slips, while some resorted to taking photographs of prescriptions on mobile phones for later data entry. These practices were flagged as violations of standard procedures.
The report notes that delays in data entry have had a cascading impact on laboratory and radiology services, disrupting diagnostics and treatment timelines. The lack of real-time digital integration has further strained coordination between departments.
To address these issues, the commission recommended that all consultant doctors be required to enter patient data into the system using their own identification credentials. It also called for an immediate increase in the number of computers in outpatient departments and pharmacies, along with mandatory staff training to improve system usage and compliance.
The inspection was carried out by Additional Director Dr Rehan Saeed, Deputy Director Atif Masood and Sohail Qaiser Gul, with the report subsequently forwarded to the Secretary of Health Punjab for corrective action.
The submission was made in response to a writ petition filed by Judicial Activism Panel Chairman Azhar Siddique Advocate, bringing the hospital’s performance under judicial scrutiny and intensifying questions over governance and accountability within the facility.
