KARACHI, Nov 30: Greed, they say, is the mother of all evils. It manifests itself in numerous ways such as kickbacks, which jack up the cost of projects, and as profiteering, which make products and services costlier for the consumers.
Profiteering is bad regardless of who is at the receiving end. But it’s particularly shameful if the poor fall victim to it. Then, there are certain areas which should be free of overpricing but which unfortunately are not.
One such area is healthcare. The poor as well as the rich regularly complain of profiteering on the part of hospitals, especially the private ones. The rich, needless to say, can cope with such difficulties. But, the health professionals and managers should think twice before exploiting the poor.
If they do, instead of providing relief, they make the lives of poor consumers miserable. This is not only a violation of the norms but also a breach of trust.
This reporter was told recently that two private hospitals are indulging in profiteering, without any regard to the effects the same may have on the lives of the poor patients. Luckily, two patients who almost fell victim to these hospitals were rescued in the nick of time.
Fida Muhammad, a carpenter working for a private woodworking company, got a part of the index finger of his right hand crushed at one of the high-speed cutters in his factory. The owner of his company, sensing that the index finger was key to the livelihood of any right-handed carpenter, immediately dispatched Fida to the best private hospital in the Nazimabad area, hoping that doing so would allow a quick recovery of the all-important finger.
However, at the hospital what Fida got was dubious advice, as the onrushing chain of events subsequently revealed. After at least three doctors had examined his hands, Mr Muhammad and his colleagues were told that the injured finger had to be removed and failure to do so might give rise to infection. Therefore, to avoid complications, it was best to go for amputation.
Mr Muhammad, on hearing of this, burst into tears, which to his credit, he had managed to hold back up until then. All of his colleagues, except for one, became resigned to what they saw as inevitable. But, Manzoor Ahmed, Mr Muhammad’s best friend, refused to give in.
He held Mr Muhammad by the hand and led him out of the private hospital, saying that it was time for a second advice. The small party of carpenters then drove up to a government hospital, located near the business district of the city.
There a master dresser dressed up Mr Muhammad’s injury. The dresser was confident that the wound would heal in a matter of a few weeks. Sure enough, his finger has healed. In the process, one feels, his career as carpenter has also been saved.
Nida Sheikh, a 20-year-old lady, was admitted to a private hospital in North Nazimabad on Nov 5 with a normal, full-time pregnancy. The same day after a normal delivery, she gave birth to a baby without any complications.
On Nov 7, the hospital staff advised her to drop in for a follow-up checkup. This she did on Nov 13. She was told then that she looked very pale and needed immediate blood transfusion.
She was admitted for a transfusion. An ultrasound of the pelvis area was performed too, which to her horror reported an evidence of blood clots and RPOC (the cause of bleeding). What amazed her was that she had not observed any bleeding herself.
She was subjected to a D&C operation, ostensibly for removal of the agent responsible for bleeding. Ms Sheikh was then discharged on Nov 15 with an advice that she should visit the hospital again on Nov 21.
On Nov 21, she was again advised a D&C operation. But Ms Sheikh, terrified of the prospect of another operation, walked away. She consulted the doctors of a private hospital in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, who told her, after an ultrasound, that no D&C was needed.
Yahya Hashim, father of Ms Sheikh, told Dawn that his daughter had been subjected to a D&C operation out of greed. He added that it was doubtful if two pints of blood had actually been transfused.
According to him, the whole drama of transfusions and operations had been enacted so that more money could be squeezed out of the patient’s family.
