BAHAWALPUR- The Punjab government has failed to provide healthcare in the public sector hospitals especially due to negligence and corruption of government doctors who have connived with the mafia so as to loot the patients.
The government allocates budget worth billions of rupees every year for the provision of medical facilities in hospitals that disappoint the patients. The doctors deployed in the hospitals remain nowhere in sight marking their attendance as they have to attend to their private hospitals.
In Health Department, the commission mafia has become very powerful due to which useless medicines are purchased by the government and free medicine which is given in hospitals could not cure the patients. Thus, benefit of the situation is taken by the national and multinational medicine companies.
The medicine companies reward the doctors for prescribing their medicines with property, cars, jewellery and foreign tours and in this way, doctors made the deal of patient’s financial murder. Doctors prescribe expensive medicines and force the patients to buy due to which medicine business is skyrocketing and in respect to expensive medicine Pakistan falls on the first position in Asia.
In the government hospitals, greedy people are deployed on profitable seats like heads of departments, admin in-charges, purchase heads and they financially hurt the government for their personal gain. The business of fake medico-legal certificates (MLC) is also on top in the government hospitals. Doctors have fixed the rates for making “Nill” MLC and MLC reports according to one’s desire from police and others.
At private clinics, the consultation fee ranges between Rs500 to Rs1,500 while fees for operations is charged from Rs20,000 to Rs400,000. Often patients are operated in the government hospital and later shifted to private hospitals and in this way the doctors receive heavy fees from such patients.
Doctors have also fixed certain points where they send the patients for angiography, pathology test, ultrasound test, CT scan, echo test and X-rays and later receive their share from these labs while patient trading is also on the top.
Dispensers, lady health workers and quacks had placed the boards of famous doctors and started looting the people while some businessmen have established private hospitals where they have deployed famous doctors by offering them heavy salaries. Public circles have demanded that the Punjab government should take action against such doctors and quacks who are playing with the lives of patients. The sellers of unhygienic, adulterated and substandard food products will be dealt with sternly as those play with the life of people do not deserve leniency, an officer said
Hospitals’ drug record seized for scrutiny
By Our Staff Reporters
ATTOCK/TOBA TEK SINGH - On the special directives of the Punjab government, the record of medicines supplied to six state-run hospitals here has been seized for scrutiny.
As per the Health Department sources, the Punjab chief minister during a video conference directed the district authorities to immediately constitute teams and seize all the record of the medicines of the hospitals. Complying with the instructions, six teams headed by District Monitoring Officer Farooq Akmal and assistant commissioners seized the record of medicines of DHQ Hospital Attock and Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals Jand, Pindigheb, Fatehjang, Hasanabdal and Hazro. The purpose is to check the record of the medicines provided to the hospitals by the govt.
Audit will be done through third party validation. As per the sources, the officials directly dealing with the issue and receipt of medicines are feeling heat of this directive of the chief minister.
EDO (Health) Malik Ibadat Khan when contacted confirmed the sealing of the record of the medicines. He said that it will not affect routine matters of the hospitals. Meanwhile, a special team headed by District Monitoring Officer Attock Farooq Akmal collected samples of different medicines and dispatched the same to authorities concerned for necessary action.
In Toba Tek Singh, Prmahal AC Najeeb sealed medicine record of Pirmahal THQ Hospital and rural health centres of Arrouti and Sindhillianwali and prohibited the staff from issuing medicines for the patients without prior permission of the authorities concerned. He said that record had been sealed on the order of DCO Amer Ijaz Akbar to conduct audit of the record of medicines used in the hospitals.