The state-run healthcare sector is in a state of shamblesTHE tragic report of a young woman who gave birth under traumatic conditions at the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Hassanabdal and had to be shifted to another medical facility raises many questions about the state of the health delivery system in the country. The relatives of the woman, who subsequently died, have alleged negligence on the part of the medical staff at the tehsil hospital. The medical superintendent there has denied the charges. While it is too early to comment on this case, it is a fact that patients at public-sector health institutions do not get proper medication or a high level of professional care or satisfactory surgical and diagnostic facilities. It is no surprise then that there are many patients who, like the young woman mentioned above, suffer at government hospitals. While we can blame individuals for this state of affairs, it is clear that it is our policymakers’ criminal neglect of hospitals in the public sector that has led to this situation. They have failed to establish a health system in Pakistan that provides decent services to citizens who cannot afford the high charges levied by private hospitals. The tehsil hospital in the news did not even have a blood bank.
Nevertheless, we cannot absolve the medical staff of all blame. Inadequate hospital facilities should not be an excuse for physicians, surgeons and others in the profession to shirk from their responsibility of caring for patients to the best of their ability by routinely monitoring them. This, after all, is crucial to the healing and recovery process. It is also important that all public complaints of negligence or poor treatment should be addressed — even if these are based on faulty premises. Every hospital should be required to have a department that attends to complaints in an honest and impartial manner. If negligence is estab-lished, corrective measures should be taken and compensation given. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has a role to play in such cases. After all it is the final arbiter in disputes where a doctor is in the dock.
Nevertheless, we cannot absolve the medical staff of all blame. Inadequate hospital facilities should not be an excuse for physicians, surgeons and others in the profession to shirk from their responsibility of caring for patients to the best of their ability by routinely monitoring them. This, after all, is crucial to the healing and recovery process. It is also important that all public complaints of negligence or poor treatment should be addressed — even if these are based on faulty premises. Every hospital should be required to have a department that attends to complaints in an honest and impartial manner. If negligence is estab-lished, corrective measures should be taken and compensation given. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has a role to play in such cases. After all it is the final arbiter in disputes where a doctor is in the dock.
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