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n two separate occasions recently, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz paid surprise visits to Mayo Hospital and Jinnah Hospital, and suspended the hospitals’ medical superintendents, acting on the complaints of the general public.
While Lahore’s public healthcare system is said to be crumbling — with complaints of non-availability of life-saving drugs and lack of facilities for diagnostic tests in emergency wards becoming ‘routine’ — CM’s action has earned her a strong reaction from the public in general and the medical fraternity in particular. It sparked protests by the Young Doctors Association and the Pakistan Medical Association took strong exception to the episode. Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, secretary general of the PMA-Centre, called the CM’s shoddy treatment of a government official highly inappropriate. He also said that the CM had no authority to remove an MS, since such decisions fell in the jurisdiction of the Health Department.
The medical community blamed the situation on the health minister and health secretary, and said that the government misled the public about the financial crisis Mayo Hospital had long been facing.
Dr Malik Shahid, an office-bearer of the PMA, said that the hospital had been burdened with Rs 3.2 billion in unpaid dues to pharmaceutical companies, thanks to the bureaucratic authorities not releasing funds. It didn’t help matters when the hospital was granted Rs 20 million as the amount was highly insufficient to address its financial situation, he added.
Dr Shahid came down hard on the Punjab government’s approach to healthcare, and stated that projects launched hastily without assessing the ground realities would lead to waste of funds.
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As far as the common public is concerned, the reaction to the CM’s dismissal of the two MSes has been mixed. There are those who are apprehensive about the whole situation and can’t seem to understand if the government or the medical community is right.
On the other hand, a lot of patients under treatment at public hospitals are happy with the CM for taking swift action. Akhlaq Ahmed, who was at Jinnah Hospital for treatment of some medical condition, says that the CM did just what the doctor ordered. He relates how he was forced to purchase medicines from private pharmacies, because many essential drugs aren’t available at the hospital. This cost him a fortune.
Amjad Hussain, a resident of Shahdara, says he took his ailing father to the hospital emergency, only to find that they could not immediately avail basic diagnostic services such as X-rays and ultrasound, as they needed to have appointments for those. He laments that this delay could put those patients whose condition is serious, at significant risk.
As a silver lining to the clouds, the CM’s stock-taking and the intense reaction from different quarters, prompted the provincial health ministry to wake up from its slumber. It also pushed senior provincial minister Maryam Aurangzeb to visit Jinnah Hospital as well as the Children’s Hospital. She visited several counters at these hospitals, inspected the wards, and reviewed the cleanliness. She also took notice of the availability of doctors and other medical staff.
Ahsan Zia is a print and broadcast journalist