Depleted facilities: Government hospitals in dire need of upgradation

Experts believe lack of investment by the provincial administration has severely strained existing infrastructure

LAHORE:

Hospitals across the most populous province face a dire shortage of essential medical supplies, staff and equipment, resulting in the overburdening of the already compromised healthcare facilities, according to a report.

Prepared by the Punjab government, the document presents an alarming picture of the situation at four major medical facilities, operating under the direct control of the provincial administration, where a total of 542 beds are available for every one million people.

While the overburdened public health sector was already in a predicament, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has put further pressure on the system, greatly exacerbating the degree of neglect experienced by the multitudes of people requiring timely medical care.

“I came to Lahore to seek surgical treatment for my eye impairment but the doctors at Jinnah Hospital keep delaying the surgery by months,” complained Shazia, an irked patient from Sialkot.

According to details gathered by The Express Tribune, most government hospitals and clinics in the provincial capital receive an influx of almost 3,000 to 5,000 patients’ everyday, but their capacity to cater is limited.

Medical experts believe this imbalance between the provinces’ health care demands and the number of health care options available can be seen when the growth in population and number of hospitals is compared. “While the population growth rate for the past 12 years was a whopping 25 per cent, the hospital network expanded only by 18 per cent. This drop in the hospital-patient ratio causes the delay most patients face in their treatment,” they explained.

Medical representatives justify this mistreatment and neglect of patients by arguing that hospitals are not receiving adequate funding from the government, despite the fact that billions are allocated for the health sector in the annual budget.

“All doctors would want to dutifully serve their patients but a lack of funds means that there has been a shortage of medicines and other paraphernalia, resulting in an unwarranted burden on the health care system,” said Salman Kazmi, who serves as Pakistan Young Doctors Association’s General Secretary.

He further revealed that government hospitals were unable to provide quality treatments for cancer and kidney diseases because the administration has failed to invest in improving the amenities and medical technologies required to treat advanced ailments.

On the other hand, the current provincial administration claimed that significant improvement had been made in the public health sector. However, most changes only had to do with the obstetrics and pediatrics facilities, with little or no developments in the other specialized departments.

The Express Tribune made an effort to contact former provincial ministers of Punjab, Khawaja Imran Nazir from PML-N and Akhtar Malik from PTI, to verify the veracity of the claims being made against the local government. The efforts however were in vain since neither of the two could be reached.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2023.