Workings of the health sector

Letter June 28, 2020
Pandemic created stark division between those who benefit off vulnerable situations & those who fight for humanity

KARACHI: The Covid-19 situation in Pakistan has largely unraveled the workings of the health sector. Nurses, doctors and healthcare workers in the public sector are working under perilous conditions are put under the limelight as coronavirus cases steadily rise.

However, the profiteering nature of private hospitals has also seen the light of the day particularly as the rates of beds in these hospitals exacerbate and medicines are sold illegally at exorbitant prices. It has become impossible for a common man to summon an ambulance for emergency purposes due to the high charges. What is more unpleasant is the invention of “magical” treatments such as blood plasma of recovered Covid-19 patients that has led to emergence of despicable practices of people selling their blood and plasma rather than donating it for a good cause.

The pandemic has created a stark division between those who take advantage of vulnerable situations and those who fight for humanity. This division, which at first was considered somewhat abstract, has not become all the more apparent as the pandemic ravages on. It is important to understand how institutions exploit those that are vulnerable for the sake of personal profit so that some form of action can be taken against them in order to alleviate the problems of the common man.

Hadia Mukhtar

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2020.

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