The department-wise division of hospitals, especially in the public sector, is a bureaucratic system of patient care. It serves an administrative convenience but has failed to impart effective care to the patient as a whole.
This was observed by Professor Malik Hussain Mubbashar, University of Health Sciences Vice Chancellor in his lecture at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan on Tuesday. He said the layout, architecture and design of public hospitals was unfortunately far from being aesthetic and pleasant.
The most dreadful and traumatic parts such as the trauma centre, the emergency, and the intensive care units were set at the very front and thus became the 'face of the hospital. "A person who merely accompanies the sick, visits an admitted patient or only wants to get his blood pressure checked may be horrified and adversely sensitised for rest of his life as regards the prospects of coming to a hospital," he said.
He said the functioning of public sector hospitals was mostly bureaucratic, with series of long queues at registration points, outpatients, and pharmacy. Offices of consultants as well as OPDs were manned by rude attendants with little understanding of the stressful mindset of a patient or an anxious family member accompanying him, he said. He said the psychosocial aspects of illnesses and clinical situations that arise in the practice of medicine were often misunderstood, ignored and were either inadequately or inappropriately treated. "Consequently, today's doctor is fast losing ground as regards the degree of satisfaction of the patient. He is no more the 'messiah' in society," he said.