Federal Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan on Sunday deplored growing commercialisation in the medical field, and asked the specialist medical doctors to play their role in provision of cost-effective medical treatment to poor masses.
He was speaking at an inauguration ceremony of the joint conference of College of Physician and Surgeon Pakistan (CPSP) and the Bangladesh College of Physician and the Surgeons (BCPS) at CPSP.
The three-day moot is being largely attended by doctors from both the countries. The theme of the conference is 'Learning and Practising Medicine in the 21st Century'.
The health minister underlined the need for end to commercialisation in the medical profession, calling upon the specialists to lend a helping hand to the government in fulfilling its commitment of better health facilities to the people of Pakistan. For this purpose, he suggested the specialists to follow the ethics of the profession.
"Beginning from the training of young doctors, under your charge, to the teaching of basic human values of compassion, kindness and mercy, you can act as a guide and give a new sense of direction to the profession as a whole", the minister commented.
Nasir Khan said the poor, who cannot afford high fees, deserve attention as much as the rich, adding the primary need was to set personal examples and invite others to emulate.
He also stressed the need for providing dignity, honour and security to the medical professionals.
The minister said he has asked the in-charges of all the government hospitals to provide A-class facilities to doctors in the hospitals, including air-conditioned rest rooms, food and other facilities.
It is the top priority of the present government to bring about a radical change in the life of the common people, he said, adding that a crucial factor in this context is the organisation and delivery of better health services to the people at affordable cost.
The government is fully aware of the fact that most of the public sector hospitals lack basic equipment and supplies and thus provides little support to the under-privileged, he remarked. Mohammad Nasir Khan deplored that for those who cannot afford to pay the rising costs of medicines and forbidding fees of specialists, the only alternative is to suffer in silence and wait for the creeping shadow of death, adding the situation in the rural areas is even worse.
The federal health minister said the government has initiated some urgent reforms to set things in order in the health sector, adding it has embarked upon a comprehensive plan of action to provide effective health cover to all, especially the weaker sections of the society.
The government is implementing with full vigour the well-thought out policy of decentralisation of the health care system, he added.
Nasir Khan emphasised the need for standardised post-graduate education in the country so that our degrees are universally accepted and recognised, saying the standard of teaching and training at the post-graduate level should be such that the name of Pakistani doctors become synonymous with quality.
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