26 October 2004	Tuesday	11 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 25: The most common complaint among the people visiting the hospital's outpatient department pertains to the failure by its management to provide medicines free of charge, inquiries made by Dawn have shown.

The other day this reporter met more than 10 people at the hospital's OPD to ascertain their views about the quality of treatment provided to them. A majority of the patients interviewed said they were not satisfied.

Mohammad Fazil, a rickshaw driver who met with a traffic accident on Shab-i-Baarat, said he had been visiting the hospital for three days but was not provided the desired service. He said at one point in time he was asked by the doctors to get his hips and legs X-Rayed from outside the hospital.

"I spent Rs400 on these X-Rays. I wonder what has happened to the X-Ray department here?" said Mr Fazil. The middle-aged man added that he had to buy several medicines from the market because they were not available in the hospital pharmacy.

Mohammad Jameel, an old man from Orangi Town, said his daughter underwent a hernia operation at the hospital about 10 days before. "She is fine now but she was operated upon after a lot of delays."

His wife and son said the hospital staff did provide some medicines to her. "But the drugs that were given to her were of lower cost than those we had to buy from the market," said Mrs Jameel.

She said her daughter got at least one ultrasound examination done from outside the hospital. "We preferred to have this examination at a private facility because delays were expected if we got the same procedure done in the hospital."

Niaz Hussein, an old jobless man, told Dawn that one of his eyes had become infected. He could not see much with the other one, he said. "I am in a condition in which everyone expresses sympathies with me, except for the doctors."

His attendant, a middle-aged man, said his eyes were initially treated at a hospital near the Old Exhibition roundabout. "We kept on seeking treatment at this hospital until we ran out of money. That was the time when we decided to bring him here."

Mr Hussein said everyday he had been making the trip for the last several days to the hospital but was yet to be treated properly. "One doctor did see me yesterday. But he seemed to be in a hurry and saw me for just two minutes."

His attendant said the doctor had prescribed an injectable drug which cost Rs800 per unit. "This has to be injected several times but the question is, from where will we get the money to buy this?"

Murad Bakhsh, a daily-wage labourer, said his four-month-old boy was suffering from chest infection which persisted even after treatment at a private clinic. "So we brought him here," he said.

"The doctor is observing him after administering an injection and we have been asked to wait for at least two hours after which he will decide whether the boy should be admitted."

Mr Bakhsh said the injectable had to be bought from a pharmacy nearby because it was not available in the hospital.