HYDERABAD: Govt urged to give priority to health sector
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, April 7: The president of the Pakistan Medical Association, Sindh, Dr Noor Mohammad Memon, has called upon the policy-makers to pledge on the World Health Day that they would give top priority to promotion of health services and prevention of diseases in the country.
In a statement issued here on Sunday in connection with the World Health Day, Dr Memon said that in the absence of a national health policy, private hospitals and private practice had become the most profitable trade and added that only the rich class could afford the curative health while preventive measures had been left at the mercy of donor agencies and their vertical programmes.
He pointed out that health had been given a low priority in the country and the policy-makers, planners, health providers and workers had also adopted an indifferent attitude towards health.
He observed that for the rich people it had become a status symbol to go for costly treatment aboard while the poor were deprived of their basic right to health care.
He said that doctors were under oath to safeguard the health and life of a patient even under extra ordinary circumstances and added that any violation of ethics made them liable for action by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.
He said that in addition to this, there were specified rules for the government doctors regarding their performance of duty and private practice.
Dr Memon, however, said that due to the political instability, the successive governments had failed to frame any national health policy, confining themselves to ad hoc measures.
Dr Memon said that killings of doctors in Karachi followed by kidnapping of one doctor near Mirpurkhas and two in NWFP had created unrest among the doctors and problems for the patients.
He urged the government to concentrate on providing security of life to the doctors and arrest the culprits instead of issuing warnings to the doctors.
About the ban on private practices, Dr Memon said that no one could deprive any medical professional of his right to practice. He said that rules existed for private practice of the government doctors and added that the rules should be implemented.
He suggested that representatives of all categories of doctors should be taken into confidence at a joint meeting and their viewpoint should be heard.
He said the levy of general sales tax on drugs was a telling blow on the people and added that partial relief would not make much of a difference.
He demanded that the GST on drugs should be totally withdrawn.
SHRINE COMMITTEE: The residents of Makki Shah and the activists of a local social welfare organization staged a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Sunday against the administrator of Auqaf for the shrine of Makki Shah.
Talking to newsmen. the leaders of the Makki Shah Social Welfare Association, Miskeen Khan, Lal Mohammad Qureshi and others said that the administrator had ignored the members of the committee of Makki Shah shrine and appointed another committee comprising outsiders.
They said that the official strength of the committee members was between five to seven but the administrator had appointed a 14-member committee.
They said that the political affiliation of the chairman of the committee was also known to all.
They demanded that the committee be dissolved and the respectable people of the area be inducted in the committee.
