Though Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has asked the health secretary to organise a health regulatory authority (HRA) for the private hospitals to monitor various standards regarding treatment and to look into the activities of the quacks and unauthorised medical practitioners who were playing with the lives of innocent people.
But in spite of elapsing two years, health department did not lend ear to these instructions under the pressure of private hospitals, clinics, maternity homes etc.
Health Secretary Raees Abbas Zaidi said he had directed the health officials concerned to formulate a plan for setting up regulatory authority in the Punjab, but they failed to provide him suggestions on the proposal. He said he had told them to study the structure and function of regulatory authority working in Sindh.
He said the officials had also failed to extract rules and regulations from the Sindh regulatory authority. He said he would, however, expedite the process and soon he would submit his proposals in the Punjab Assembly for legislation. In may be recalled that in 2005 Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had directed the health department to set up a regulatory authority for inspecting private hospitals, clinics and medical colleges at the proposals of an inquiry committee.
The committee was set up to probe the causes of Jahan Ara Ijaz's death. She allegedly died due to the negligence of doctors at National Hospital on March 2005. The inquiry committee was consisted of Services Hospital head Professor Dr Faisal Masood, Lahore General Hospital Neurosurgery Department Dr Nazir Ahmed and Dr Kamran of Sheikh Zayed Postgraduate Medical Institute. The committee members had recommended setting up a regulatory authority.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr Farzana Nazir said she had worked on the issue. She said she would submit her proposal in the Punjab Assembly for its legislation. She said there were more labs and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) units in the private hospitals as compared to the public hospitals. She said it was the government's duty to monitor these private hospitals, medical colleges, clinics and labs. She said the government should also probe whether these private hospitals were not extorting undue profit from the patients.
Unlike the Punjab, the NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh have imposed certain restrictions on private hospitals and clinics through ordinances. These ordinances will not only govern the functioning of existing ones, but also lay down certain parameters to regulate private health facilities.
Comments
Comments are closed.