Patients bemoan shift of hospital staff focus

Claim they are getting late appointments as no senior medics are available

LAHORE: Services Hospital, the busiest medical facility in the provincial capital which thousands of people visit daily, now seems to have shifted all its focus on the treatment of Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal.

Although OPD and emergency facilities are still functioning as per routine, the lack of senior professors and medics has affected important procedures and major operations of common people; some of whom visit from far flung areas. In many cases, these patients are being told to come on another day.

“I don’t feel like I am coming to a public hospital. It resembles the headquarters of a law enforcement agency,” comments Abdul Majid who has come from Sharqpur district to get his son checked up. The patient has developed a skin infection.

Pointing a finger at the extra presence of law enforcement agencies on the hospital premises, he regrets the fact that the administration has given him an appointment after three days as senior medics are unavailable.

“Even when they (influential people) become sick, problems are created for common people,” he laments.

VIP movement

Since Iqbal has been admitted to the hospital, important dignitaries including Corps Commander Lahore, ousted prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, Marium Orangzaib, Talal Chudhry, Health Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique, PTI leader Fawad Chudhry and Abrarul Haq have been some of visitors to Service Hospital. The administration has closed Gate no 3 and restricted movement around the VIP block. Walkthrough gates are installed on the premises, while all senior professors and medics are busy at the VIP ward.



A junior doctor, requesting anonymity, tells The Express Tribune that senior officials, including the medical superintendent, have also shifted their focus to the treatment of the interior minister. He agrees that although the staff is officially on duty, none of its members are interested in providing treatment to common people, “The masses are truly being deprived,” he regrets.

However, a spokesman of the health department rejects all such allegations. He says the hospital is functioning normally and the masses are not facing any kind of problem when it comes to their treatment.

Home Minister Ahsan Iqbal interior minister has been wounded in a gun attack during an election rally in Naorwal district and later shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Services Hospital. The minister underwent two operations, one aimed at removing the bullet from Iqbal's lower torso and the other to mend his broken elbow bone.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2018.