‘Austerity drive will not affect free healthcare facilities’

Free of charge treatment facilities will not be affected by the austerity plan.

LAHORE: Free of charge treatment facilities being provided in the emergency and indoor wards of public hospitals will not be affected by the austerity plan, Parliamentary Health Secretary Dr Saeed Elahi said on Wednesday.

He was visiting the Jinnah Hospital.

Dr Elahi rejected the allegations that hospitals had started charging for the facilities. He was accompanied by the hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Javed Akram. He also announced the withdrawal of ‘perchi fee’ at the Jinnah Hospital’s emergency and outpatient departments.

Dr Elahi said that free of charge provision of healthcare facilities will not be affected by the government’s austerity drive.

He said that some elements were unhappy because the poor were getting free healthcare facilities.

They, he said, were spreading such propaganda.

Dr Elahi said that none of the hospitals had increased their ‘perchi’ fee or cancelled free provision of medical facilities in the wake of the austerity notification.

He said that the government was committed to provide free treatment facilities at public hospitals at all cost.

Dr Javed Akram assured the media and the health secretary that he will implement the fee withdrawal decision. “No such fee shall be charged from the patients from now on.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2010.