National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) verifications vans will now be used to identify unattended, unidentified patients or dead bodies coming to all government hospitals.
Yesterday, the Punjab police, Primary Health Care Department, and Specialised Health Department have issued a notification in this regard. Recently, these mobile vans of NADRA with the help of biometric verification and data record successfully identified two unconscious patients at Mayo Hospital. Subsequently, their families were traced and then they were handed over to their relatives using NADRA’s vans.
It is important to mention that more than 450 unidentified people including women and children are reported dead in different city police station every year. Sadly, only two or three dead bodies have been identified while the rest of them are buried unidentified through Edhi Service and other Welfare Trust in different graveyards.
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In normal cases, the hospital management informs the concerned police station if any injured and an unidentified person is found. After getting the details of that unidentified body, the police disappears, leaving the hospital authorities to take care of the dead person and arrange for his burial.
Young Doctors Association (YDA) Pakistan Secretary Dr. Salman Kazmi has appealed to the Inspector General Punjab Police to pass these directions to all police stations that identification of unattended and unverified patients and dead bodies can easily be done by using the latest technology of NADRA in future.
The YDA has also applauded the health department for supporting the initiative and issuing the notification for the betterment of the poor people.
