22 May 2004	Saturday	02 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

PESHAWAR, May 21: The government has scrapped the share of doctors and paramedics in the user charges at its hospitals, but it has not passed on the decision's benefit to patients disregarding the promise it had made to them, it is learnt.

On Oct 17, the provincial government had issued a notification titled relief package, doing away with the share and promising to provide relief to the patients. However, patients are paying the same fee for various tests and other procedures at the government hospitals which they used to pay before the abolition of the staff's share in the user charges.

Previously, 40 per cent of the money collected under the user charges went to staffers and the rest to the national kitty. Announcing the relief package, the government had said that the equipment and machines had been provided to hospitals and the employees working on them were paid salaries.

So, it argued, there was no justification for the staffers to draw share. Patients visiting the three teaching hospitals in Peshawar have to pay Rs300 as user charges for the operation theatre.

The kits for detecting hepatitis B and C are available for Rs40 each in the open market, but a patient has to obtain it for Rs440 at the HMC and other hospitals. Charges for blood transfusion are rising every year, and patients have to pay a handsome amount despite providing the blood by their relatives.

The blood banks at the government hospitals again charge the patients for keeping the blood.

An attendant said: "My patient was admitted in the Lady Reading Hospital for two weeks. He received 12 pints of blood for which we paid a hefty amount to the blood bank as fee".