Illegal rehabilitation centre

An Illegal rehab centre was operating in Kot Khawaja Saeed, Punjab

It is unacceptable that an illegal rehabilitation centre was operating in Kot Khawaja Saeed, Punjab. Media reports say patients were forcibly detained at Aamir Chishti Hospital, and the authorities should take the owners to task. In fact, 250 such cases could potentially be raised against the hospital since that is the number of patients they pretentiously held to keep their hospital rooms occupied, forcibly driving up revenue. The Punjab Healthcare Commission and the district health authority of Lahore are implored to follow through with strict consequences for the hospital, especially since it continued to operate despite being closed down. This is a prime opportunity to set an example to others who freely operate sub-par healthcare facilities and exploit patients and families.

Ethics is the primary factor missing in this case. Enforcing patient rights is close to nonexistent and taking a few steps back, most patients and their families are never apprised of their rights. Time and again, we have found hospitals, even those running legal operations, to fail following through with the Hippocratic oath, which is the most basic canon in the healthcare profession. In 2010, when a terrorist exploded a bomb at the mausoleum of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Clifton, Karachi, a nearby hospital refused to accept the resultant emergency cases ostensibly because it feared the patients would not be able to afford their charges. This is only one example of a healthcare facility’s ethics being amiss but this latest case out of Punjab adds to a long list of ethics violations by hospitals across the country.

Reports of torture and forced drugging should serve as a gateway to opening investigations on other clinics and hospitals. In countries with more sophisticated legal systems, such personnel would be stripped of privileges to work in healthcare and imprisoned. Harsh consequences are also due in this case.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2018.

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