Non-admission of patients in hospitals of Islamabad: Senate body receives complaints, says Malik

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator A Rehman Malik said that the committee had received several complaints from the general public regarding the non-admission of their patients in hospitals of Islamabad.

While addressing a press conference here on Wednesday via video link, he said that in this regard, he had written letters to the secretary interior and chief commissioner Islamabad directing that all hospitals in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) may be directed to ensure admission of the underlying diseases patients.

He said that the ICT Administration, Islamabad should immediately create temporary beds facility for such patients without further loss of time to save their lives. He said that the ratio of the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country was highly worrisome, and hence, extraordinary precautionary measures should be taken to control its further spread.

He said that the underlying diseases patients having multiple and complex health issues such as kidneys, heart, lungs, diabetics, cancer, etc were not being admitted by the hospitals in Islamabad, whereas, they needed special medical care.

He said that he was informed that even the patients with Covid-19 requiring immediate support of oxygen and ventilators were also denied by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) hospitals, and hospitals were complaining about lack of capacity.

The PPP leader has also advised the government to procure vaccines on an urgent basis from all the available international sources, on an SOS basis, to safeguard the nation from Covid-19. He has directed to take special care of police and public servants to save them from the "second wave" of Covid-19, especially the police officials working and living in Police Lines.

He said that a detailed meeting of the committee would be scheduled soon for consideration of precautionary measures being taken by the Islamabad administration (ICT) to stop the potential spread of the "second wave" of the Covid-19 in Islamabad.

Senator Malik said that the country was passing through a testing time as on one side it was facing the potential spread of the coronavirus and on the other hand threats were escalating at southern and western borders as India was always hatching conspiracies against Pakistan, and in such a situation "we need unity and collective wisdom to cope with all the challenges".

He said that current political polarisation was neither in favour of the people of Pakistan nor democracy. He urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to give up his "ego" and create national unity and consensus to combat the coronavirus and other challenges.

Answering a question, Senator Rehman Malik said that the government not to humiliate the opposition, and the way police mistreated political leadership in Multan was condemnable. He expressed that the police had the right to arrest but had no right to humiliate anyone, adding that the conduct with Gilani brothers was against the law and highly condemnable. He added that no law allowed the police to treat citizens or elected representatives in such a way. He said that in a democratic system all political issues and differences were settled through dialogue rather than victimisation and use of force.

He said that as then-interior minister, he had handled major political sit-ins and protests through political wisdom and dialogue. On the occasion, Senator Rehman Malik felicitated the workers of the PPP on party's 53rd Foundation Day.

He said that today on 2 December 1988 Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as the prime minister of Pakistan on 2 December 1988, and became the first women prime minister in the history of Muslim Ummah.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020