Patients who suffer from chronic diseases such as angina, liver, or chronic renal failure require continuous medical aid, whose absence endangers their life. In other countries, we have seen more respect being shown to animals then our governments provide to people in the rural areas. Pakistan has a large population residing in these areas with no health facilities, such as running water, hospitals or trained doctors.
The hospitals that do exist in public sector hospitals at Tehsil and district level are in deplorable conditions. These hospitals lack rudimentary health equipment, electricity and people who can operate these machines (where the machines do exist). The increase in population has not been considered by the educated and appointed government servants.
The patients of complicated diseases are well managed in tertiary care hospitals because of their well trained teaching staff, modernized equipment and sustainable infrastructure. Intensive care units are although built in district head quarter hospitals, but these are not fully equipped with lifesaving drugs, monitors, ventilators and also lack a trained staff. In case of an emergency, people living in far flung areas rush to tertiary care hospitals in big cities. This situation has put a lot of burden on the manpower and financial resources of these hospitals.
The emergency departments of some of the hospitals are in very bad shape. Often more than one patient is seen lying on a single bed. The attendants of patients can be seen making efforts to get a bed allotment for their patient. The sections where patients who do not pay private fees, the nursing staffs’ behavior and treatment is atrocious. The concerned authorities should upgrade all district head quarter hospitals to meet the need of the growing population and equip them with at least basic health gadgets.
DR AMAN-UR-REHMAN,
Lahore, October 8