December 15, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 10, 1423

PESHAWAR, Dec 14: The Pakistan Medical Association has demanded of the government to implement Safe Blood Transfusion Act (SBTA), put brakes on quackery and take action against the medical practitioners involved in the tax-evasion and unethical medical practices to ensure that people receive quality treatment.

“Abuse of syringes by quacks and health professional and transfusion of unscreened blood at official and private hospitals have been the main cause of the spread of the hepatitis and Aids in this part of the world and there is an urgent need to check this unethical practice to save the people from preventable deadly epidemics,” said PMA president Dr Umar Ayub in his address to the participants of the three-day 25th Biennial Conference at a local hotel here on Saturday.

He said one third of the total population of the country lived below the poverty-line, 50 per cent didn’t have access to the clean drinking water, 70 per cent people have no access to get any education, 50 per cent families lived in one-room houses, 35 per cent rural population do not have access to treatment facilities, 12 million children suffered due to malnourishment, 30,000 women died annually due to pregnancy-related complications and the burgeoning 4.8 million new births.

It is dismal situation and the government being a signatory to the Almaty Declaration, should implement the same to ensure Health for All by the year 2003.

The PMA also screened a documentary entitled State of Health and Education in the country, produced by Dr Shershah Syed, secretary general of the PMA, which depicted the scant healthcare scenario in the country and said that invention of bombs, marines and sub-marines were no solution to the multi-dimensional problems faced by the people.

“We are with the government in campaign and action against the doctors involved in tax-evasion and unethical medical practices,” Dr Shah said.

He said most of the quacks were ignorant and didn’t know about the medical field and the responsibility rest with the government to get rid of such elements in consultation with the medical community.

Adviser to the prime minister, Nilofar Bakhtiar, said that the poverty-stricken people lived in slum houses which were without sanitation and sewerage systems that caused host of diseases among their communities.

She cited the poverty and ignorance as the main reasons due to which the aged succeeded in getting marrying the underaged women. She said that it was the collective responsibility of the government and all the people to strive hard for a change for the better.

NWFP governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah who was the chief guest on the occasion, lauded the PMA’s efforts to provide people with health education in order to eradicate the diseases through prevention.

He said that there was no concept of free treatment in developed countries and the government cannot afford free treatment facilities to all the people. For this purpose, he said the government was encouraging private sector to involve in the establishment of healthcare outlets to benefit the people.

He said the population explosion was eating out all resources and it was the collective duty of the professional bodies, NGOs and government to create awareness among the people about it. The ever-changing demographic composition was the result of the rapid growth in the population which needed to be checked and stopped, he added.

He was of the view that some of the doctors were indulged in unethical and inhuman practices and tax-evasion in their bid to become richer and richer at the cost of human lives.