Muhammad Ashraf Mehar
KASUR
The District Headquarters Hospital of Kasur has failed to provide healthcare for the people while the private hospitals and clinics have been cashing in on the situation, it is learnt.
Most of the hospitals are being run by the doctors are government employees working in the hospital or the health department. The DHQ Hospital is also an ideal spot for the aspirants of getting fake medicolegal certificates. It is a place where the poor get nothing but jolts, The Nation has learnt.
About two dozen hospitals are in the close vicinity of the DHQ Hospital, mostly run by the doctors of the DHQ Hospital and DHO Kasur. Doctors at DHO office are sitting on the same seats for over a decade. The DHQ doctors perform surgeries at private hospitals but refused to do so at DHQ Hospital, forcing the patients to visit the expensive private hospitals. A senior doctor of DHQ Hospital checks up patients at his residence in the premises of DHQ Hospital in the duty hours and charges a sum of Rs500 per patient.
A doctor that had been doing surgeries for about three years at DHQ Hospital managed his transfer at a BHU where he checks about two dozen patients with ordinary ailments. Meanwhile, Kasur DCO Adnan Arshad Aulakh has also failed to transfer the doctor to DHQ Hospital. In the absence of any orthopedic surgeon, patients are referred to a quack in the neighborhood of the hospital.
According to an estimate, there are about 200 midwives just in Kasur city. These midwives put the lives of the mother and baby at risk due to the lack of basic facilities at their clinics.
Due to the failure of state run hospital to give satisfactory results of the chemical tests of the patients, the patients are forced to go the private laboratories. Again, these diagnostic laboratories are run and patronised by the employs of the DHQ Hospital. The story does not end here as some laboratories are using the material of the DHQ laboratory and X-ray department.
The local people have demanded that the government especially the health authorities should look into the matter and take action against the perpetrators.