Unanimous in violation: 50 per cent beds for poor at teaching hospitals a far cry

Health Dept gets no reply to letter sent to 28 private medical colleges.

LAHORE:

A Health Department letter to all the private medical colleges in the Punjab, asking them to observe a rule regarding allocation of 50 percent beds in their teaching hospitals for poor patients, has not received any response, The Express Tribune has learned.

The department had written a letter, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, to all 28 private medical colleges in the Punjab on January 2, reminding them that under Clause 17(6) of the Medical and Dental Institutions Regulations, 2012, fifty percent beds in the hospitals affiliated with the private colleges must be allocated for admission and consultation for the general public. Other treatment expenses including laboratory services, medicines and supplies, if any, could only be charged from these patients on a no-profit, no-loss basis, according to the rule.

“Under the said provisions, the functioning of teaching hospitals attached with the private sector medical/central colleges would share the burden of the government for health care delivery in the province,” the letter read.

The Health Department letter stated that the provisions were not being implemented in their true sense and were being broadly violated by the administration of the private sector medical/dental institutions.

“In this context, you are, therefore, requested to implement these provisions in the hospitals attached to your medical/dental college not only to provide effective and affordable tertiary care level health facilities to the patients of the Punjab province but for increasing the standards of medical education of the students,” the letter stated.

According to the Health Department record, 49 private hospitals affiliated with the 28 medical colleges are bound to provide free beds to patients. These hospitals are supposed to provide free beds to 7,625 patients in all, a department official told The Express Tribune.

“Four months have passed since the letter was written but the department is yet to hear back from any college. As things stand, hardly one or two private medical colleges meet the criterion,” the official added.

Dr Salman Shahid, the Health Department additional secretary (technical), who deals with medical education, said that he would look into the matter to see what had been done and what needed to be done.

Dr Sabir Ayyaz, chief operating officer of Farooq Teaching Hospital in Lahore, a teaching hospital affiliated with Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College, said that their college was fulfilling the requirement of keeping 50 percent of the beds free for the poor patients. “We have three attached teaching hospitals and around 60 percent of our beds are free for poor patients. At one of these, Akhtar Saeed Trust Hospital, all 300 beds are free for the patients,” he maintained.

Dr Majeed Chaudhry, principal of Lahore Medical and Dental College, said private medical colleges were serving people more than the Health Department by providing free of cost treatment. “Just at Ghurki Hospital medicine worth Rs10 million is distributed among poor patients free of cost every month. Very large number of patients is examined every day for a nominal fee. This is the duty of the state that is being borne by trust hospitals,” he said. Referring to the Health Department communiqué as a routine matter, Dr Chaudhry added that their hospital was doing its job very well.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2014.