Doctors currently find it difficult to accommodate poor patients due to rising utility costs
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) insistence that doctors’ clinics in Islamabad be moved to commercial areas is causing huge problems for both doctors and patients. This will inevitably mean that many clinics will have to be located in the upper storeys of commercial buildings, which often do not have the facility of elevators, rendering such clinics out of the reach of elderly and sick patients. Doctors and the CDA are on a collision course. It is strange that while in the UK, most private general physician clinics are located in residential areas so that the elderly population has access to a doctor within walking distance in metropolitan areas, the CDA tries its very best to kick doctors out of residential areas.
What is also hugely problematic in commercial plazas is the inconsistent supply of water. An open tap in any one bathroom during the night depletes the water supply for an entire building, something which a clinic cannot function without. Most commercial plazas have no working lifts and carry dangerous live wires. This is visible at Blue Area plazas and elsewhere. Has the CDA ever noticed toxic fumes from printing press procedures all over Blue Area? Patients usually prefer quiet residential clinics. Parking is another problem in commercial areas. Oftentimes, music shops will suddenly emerge in commercial areas, which causes disturbance at nearby clinics. Furthermore, commercial plazas in Islamabad often have no safety exits and fire controls.
The CDA’s current policy of limiting private schools to sector H8 is resulting in the obstruction of traffic to the area’s largest hospital, Shifa International, for at least three hours every day. Its policy of constructing overhead bridges has made the transportation of sick patients from the F residential sector to PIMS Hospital three times as long as before. Similarly, the CDA’s insistence that only two rooms be used in residential areas for professional purposes is unworkable as modern medical equipment requires a lot of space. Modern medical clinics also have waiting rooms, reception areas, a doctor’s room, a room for sterilising equipment and space for assistants.
The CDA’s present suggested set-up could only have been possible in olden times, when stethoscopes and water sterilisers were the only gadgets that doctors needed, but not today. The CDA hospital itself needs expansion and its ambulances need pre-hospital care training as mere oxygen cylinders are not adequate for emergency care these days.
Lastly, of course, it is the poor patient who will bear the additional cost of having clinics located in commercial areas. The best course of action for the CDA would be to allow up to four rooms in a clinic in residential areas with the condition that no more than three doctors will work at one place and that they will not give appointments to more than two patients in one hour. This is to limit the number of cars parked outside the premises to four so as to not disturb neighbours. Corner houses should be approved for larger clinics to ease congestion. Doctors could also be assigned plots in class III and Blue Area shopping areas at a rate of Rs5,000 per square yard. Wapda and the CDA should charge low tarrifs for doctors’ clinics because patients will eventually have to bear the costs through medical fees. Doctors currently find it difficult to accommodate poor patients due to rising utility costs.
Dr M I Shaikh
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2015.
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