Approaching courts: Rights organisation to seek stay order against fees in govt hospitals

New charges went into effect on April 1.

GILGIT: The International Human Rights Organisation [IGRO] in Gilgit-Baltistan has hinted they will approach the courts to seek a stay order on the government’s decision to charge patients at public hospitals.

“We will soon register a petition against the government’s decision to impose fees in public hospitals,” said IHRO Coordinator Mohammad Farooq. “The decision is against human rights because more than 75% of people in G-B live below the poverty line.”

The fees went into effect from April 1. Previously, services rendered at public hospitals were free of charge. Patients now have to pay Rs100 for ultrasound, Rs2,250 for a CT Scan and up to Rs300 for a surgery.

“The fees are comparatively higher than those in the rest of Pakistan,” Farooq said. We are consulting lawyers to file a case, he added.



G-B Information Minister Ali Madad Sher had earlier said the decision to impose charges would help generate much-needed revenue to keep public hospitals afloat.

The money collected will be deposited in the national exchequer and a committee headed by medical superintendents of government hospitals will be responsible to appropriate it.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2013.