BAHAWALPUR - Senior doctors at state-run hospitals in the district have ignored the patients as they carry out private practice at their clinics, it has learnt.
A survey conducted by The Nation reveals that patients in the public hospitals are now on the mercy of junior and inexperienced doctors as their seniors have been busy carrying out their practice at private clinics.
Specialist doctors of Quaid-e-Azam Medical College and Bahawal Victoria Hospital are looting innocent people with both hands. They have established clinics in their houses where they check patients from morning to night and receive up to Rs1,000 fee for each patient. Besides, they have also established medical stores in their clinics where they sell products of specific companies and force the patients to buy these medicines. In this way, they not only earn profits through the sale of medicines but also receive commission from pharma companies. Patients are also bound to get their laboratory tests from specific labs that allegedly pay the doctors incentives per patient. Besides, they also receive salaries from the government.
Specialist doctors visit the government hospitals only for attendance and all the day, they remain busy fleecing patients under the guise of ‘saviours.’ They do not visit wards in the hospital and check patients only at their clinics or privately established hospitals. People who cannot afford their fee die in hospitals helplessly. The doctors also seem to be connived with officials as they pay only few hundred rupees to Income Tax Department as monthly tax.
On the other hand, the state-run hospitals are in miserable condition. Despite the government has spent billions of rupees for renovation of hospitals, they lack better healthcare and modern equipment for treatment of patients.
Residents of Bahawalpur including Muhammad Asim, Mohsin Bukhari, Muhammad Asif and others demanded the government to take notice of the grave situation. The urged the government to impose a ban on private practice of doctors and ensure their presence in the public hospitals. Similarly, they urged the government to ensure modern equipment and machinery available at the hospitals so that no one could die due to lack of medical facility.