LRH ends free provision of 11 medicines

The largest health facility of its kind in the Khyber Pakthunkhwa (K-P) Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) has been at the heart of yet another controversy as it stopped the free provision of 11 types of medicine at its emergency department, forcing the general public to buy them from the open market.

For the past nine years LRH is no stranger to scandals that are seldom reported in the media and this is yet another controversial step on the part of the hospital management who always makes tall claims about the performance of the hospital despite the ever increasing complaints of the patients and staff alike. Director Emergency Department Dr Muhammad Adeel Iqbal has issued a formal notification in this regard.

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Talking to The Express Tribune official sources said that even anti tetanus injection for certain patients has been removed from the free-of-cost list along with other medicines whose provision is considered a must at casualty department of any hospital and they don’t cost a lot. Senior doctors have voiced their strong concern over the decision, blaming that for the past nine years LRH had been turned into an experiment ground which had affected several areas. “As per international protocols, which some people in the PTI claim adhering to, emergency specialists should be recruited for the casualty but there is none at the LRH.

If they have emergency specialists they should make their names public for the benefit of the general public in this province,” said a senior doctor, adding that the availability of all kinds of emergency medicines, equipment as well as facilities at LRH is another big question mark. “In fact in each and every hospital of the province Medical Officers (MO), trainee Medical Officers and House Officers (HO) are running the emergency department from LRH to a small district level hospital. There is no emergency specialist even at LRH.

HOs and MOs are even running wards so instead of introducing true reforms at the hospital some people are interested in mere propaganda. They are even taking back the facilities which were previously available and this notification regarding the removal of 11 medicines from the free list is yet another step in that direction. “Even those MOs and HOs working at the emergency of the hospitals are also facing threats from the visitors and relatives of patients and scuffles between the staff and general public are on the rise too without inviting any attention from the quarters concerned,” they blamed.