Immediate action is needed to regulate actions of private hospitals and improve the state-run health facilities
KARACHI: It appears that in Pakistan’s current circumstance, every profession has become commercialised, including the healthcare sector. The conditions in government hospitals are often unhygienic, there is a lack of doctors and emergency services are in a poor state. If a person does not have the right contacts, they face many problems in the service industries. As a result, people often don’t have any choice but to go to private hospitals.
In private hospitals, we find proper infrastructure and healthcare facilities but they charge whopping amounts for treatment. Also, while doctors here usually pay more attention to their patients, they also sometimes tend to prescribe tests unnecessarily. Makes one think though — are they looting money from the pockets of the common man? This is because doctors earn commissions on every test. Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies also provide commissions to doctors if they prescribe their medicines. Most pharmaceutical companies also gift free vacations to doctors, offering tickets for their entire families as well. The government needs to step up and take immediate action to regulate actions of private hospitals. It also needs to improve the state of state-run health facilities.
Sami Zafar
Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2016.
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