In democratic nations, parliament makes laws to set the direction of the country. The laws are enforced and every citizen is ought to abide by them. The same is the case with Pakistan. New laws are made daily, they are then amended according to the need, and then they are imposed. If anyone breaks the law they are slapped with a penalty.
In Pakistan, the situation of basic human rights is not satisfactory. Interestingly, all the laws are made with a purpose to empower people with their basic human rights. They also include the rights of a person in the healthcare sector. The doctors got their own rights, the paramedic staff are empowered with their own basic rights and patients got their own rights.
Unfortunately, despite the presence of all the basic rights, malpractice is common in the provision of healthcare. Patients are maltreated, they are looked down upon, and they are not treated according to medical ethics. Part of the reason is the lack of hospitals to accommodate the huge population. In overcrowded hospitals, unfortunate situations occur and negligence by the paramedic staff and doctors is committed.
It burdens furthermore the already deprived ones, who are living below the poverty line and who have no access to basic necessities. Food insecurity, malnutrition, the prevalence of the disease is common in them. On top of all the issues, they are badly treated in hospitals. They are targets of the worst exploitation.
They are not respected by the hospital staff; they are made to wait for hours with nobody to entertain them. When their turn comes, they are subjected to malpractice. In the end, they are returned with no in-depth check-up. The admitted ones go through even much worse. They are not given food on time. Their bedsheets and cloths are not regularly changed and nurses treat them with utter despise. The negligence is so common that doctors even leave surgical instruments and cleaning cloths inside the body of the patient.
High charges in private hospital issues are another area where the poor is maltreated. The situations of government hospitals are intentionally aggravated to enhance the business of private hospitals. The charges of private hospitals in terms of doctor’s fees, room charges, and laboratory tests, etc. are so high that the common people cannot even think of getting treatment from such hospitals. If a patient is brought in an emergency, they are told to first arrange money for treatment before admitting him.
Expired medicines are abundantly available everywhere. Used or extremely low standard syringes are also found in the medical stores. The rates of the medicines are the highest in Pakistan as far as the rates of rest of the countries of South Asia.
From the above-mentioned reasons, one can conclude that all these malpractice are happening under the nose of healthcare authorities. It is the failure of the state to not penalize people from healthcare who ill-treat patients. It is urgent and the need of times that proper system to penalize the criminally minded people, especially connected with the medical profession be implemented to save the lives of Pakistanis.
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