Export feared to worsen shortage of doctors

Govt says it allows doctors to leave if they specialised in fields in which there was already a surplus of doctors.

LAHORE: The government has dismissed opposition concerns about a shortage of doctors in the country, saying it had only allowed doctors to leave the country if they specialised in fields in which there was already a surplus of doctors.

Health Parliamentary Secretary Saeed Elahi was replying to a question from Sheikh Alauddin, a PML-Q (Like Minded) MPA, regarding a shortage of doctors in the province. He said that a limited number of doctors have been allowed to leave on special request from the Saudi government. He said that Pakistan was indebted to Saudi Arabia as a close ally, and so some doctors had been issued NOCs to work there.

Alauddin said that by exporting doctors, the department was being unjust to its own people. “Our people are already short of good doctors. And now the government is sending away the ones we have.”

Dr Elahi admitted that public hospitals lacked doctors and paramedical staff, but he assured the house that the government was trying hard to fill this gap. In the last four months, he said, 1,700 doctors had been appointed and were being sent to the areas where they were needed most. He said the government had increased the health budget fourfold in the last two-and-a-half years.

Raheela Khadim Hussain, a PML-N MPA, noted that the government had been providing free medicine in hospitals around the province for the last two years. However, she said, the process had been slowed due to the recent floods.

Dr Elahi said that burn units had been installed in major hospitals of the province.

Adjournment motion:

“The government has withheld our development funds due to the floods, but no productive work is being done in flood-hit-areas either. I beg the government to address the deprivation of their people.”

Hasan Murtaza, a PPP MPA, in an adjournment motion complained that thousands of people in Chiniot were suffering from hepatitis caused by contaminated water. He said that untreated water from Faisalabad was being drained into Chiniot, while potable water from Chiniot was being used by Faisalabad. He said that life had become difficult for the people of the constituency.

PML-N MPA Rana Afzal said that the people of Faisalabad were ready to do anything for the people of Chiniot.

Murtaza said that a DMG officer had beaten up a grade 19 official, but nothing had been done in this regard. Replying to his complaint, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that a three-member committee had been formed to prepare a report. He said, “Some people are holding press conferences to highlight themselves. I request them to stay away from politics, as they are government employees, not politicians.”

PML-N MPA Chaudhry Sher Ali Khan pointed out a newspaper report that weapons worth Rs3.1 million had been stolen from a government store. Sanaullah said the Home Department was investigating the report.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2010.