Doctors’ issues: PMA members press for enactment of anti-quackery bill

Medical situation will only get better once the law is there in all four provinces, they say.

KARACHI: The newly elected cabinet of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Centre urged the government to pass the Health Commission Bill at the earliest. The members of PMA believe all health sector issues would be resolved if the bill is passed. It was further added that all four provincial assemblies should pass the bill unanimously.

Sharing the future road map, PMA’s secretary-general Dr Mirza Ali Azhar said that they will start the struggle for the bill very soon. “The bill is very important for curbing the menace of quackery,” he said.

“The government should consider this bill seriously,” said Dr M Idress Edhi, the chairperson of the editorial board for PMA’s journal.

Dr Azhar said PMA was concerned about the medical educational standard, saying it is the responsibility of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to keep the standard maintained. “The standards will never be maintained if there is corruption.”

PMA’s new body announced that they would start the health awareness drive soon. “Health awareness is really important and we will try to work on the preventive side,” Dr Azhar added. They said that the disturbed law and order situation was affecting the state of the health of the country. Doctors in Sindh and Balochistan are repeatedly being kidnapped, they said. “As doctors are under a lot of mental stress, we are trying to resolve their issues,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2014.