30 January 2005	Sunday	19 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Saturday said the government should formulate reforms, including establishment of a well-represented authority to monitor standard of hospitals , laboratories and blood banks, to improve healthcare delivery system in the country.

The reforms have been designed taking into account Article 38 (a) and (d) of the Constitution which require the state to safeguard the well-being of people by providing them with basic necessities of life like medical relief irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race if someone is permanently or temporarily unable to earn livelihood on account of infirmity, sickness or unemployment, said PMA Central President Dr Umar Ayub Khan.

The PMA also asked the government to come out with an acceptable policy on organ transplant based on ethics and morality, adding the laws be implemented as early as possible to facilitate organ donation.

In the absence of such a law, health experts said, Pakistan has become a hub of illegal kidney trade.

"The cities of Rawalpindi and Lahore have become centres where scores of foreigners, especially Arabs, are coming for kidney transplantation by exploiting the poor," a urologist on condition of anonymity told Dawn.

Illegal kidney trade and transplant are being done in the two cities by doctors who are not experts in the field and who operate in small places without proper facilities - a practice which is against medical ethics, norms and standards.

The reforms also suggest ensuring access to clean drinking water which is a right of every citizen as unclean water is responsible for 1.2 million deaths every year in the country.

The PMA asked the government to hold every medical college accountable for quality of its graduates; improve student-teacher ratio, monitor private medical colleges through the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and assess the requirement of specialists in the country.

It also demanded an immediate ban on the availability of cigarettes, pan, chalia and gutka.

The PMA also proposed a career structure for all the three cadres of medicine, namely teaching, specialist and general, adding that upward movement till grade-20 be announced.

Besides, it added, a handsome amount be given to the teaching cadre as teaching and research allowance. Moreover, 20 per cent of the pay in form of non-practising allowance be given to doctors in specialist and general cadres. The promotion of doctors should be according to the set time-scale.

It said the medical curriculum be changed in accordance with the need of the time. There is a need to include medical ethics in the curriculum.

About the drug policy, it said fair and transparent system of drug registration be introduced, pharmaceutical companies be made bound to adhere to ethical practices by mandatory producing cheap essential drugs like nitroglycerin and thyroxine.

Career structure for young doctors should be developed by granting grade-17 as minimum, besides new nursing and paramedics schools be established.

It also asked the government to deal with quackery with an iron hand as, it added, 600,000 quacks were playing havoc with the lives of people.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association on Saturday demanded immediate arrest of the members of a jirga that had decreed death for lady doctor Shazia Khalid to restore their "lost Honour".

The lady doctor had been allegedly criminally assaulted by an army officer and his colleagues in Sui on January 2.

Talking to mediapersons at Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club, PMA President Dr Umar Ayub Khan demanded of the government to employ all investigative methods, including recording of circumstantial evidence, DNA test and other procedures, to establish the crime.

He, however, appreciated the arrest of four suspects namely one senior officer of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), two doctors and one army captain after 26 days of the incident and demanded that they should be hanged publicly as a deterrent to others.

Dr Umar Ayub claimed that the husband and family members of the lady doctor had informed the Karachi PMA office that the jirga in Gombut Khairpur (Sindh) had passed a verdict to immediately kill the lady doctor in a bid to restore their "lost honour".

Cases under Section 307 (intent to kill) under Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) should be registered against the jirga members, he demanded. "If the jirga members are really men of conscience then they should kill those who have raped the lady doctor instead of killing the doctor," he said. He also asked the commission on Sui rape case to complete its probe within the stipulated time.

The lady doctor had recently recorded her statement on the basis of which four persons were arrested. A medical examination of the lady doctor has also been conducted.

Dr Umar Ayub also demanded action against those PPL officers who had tried to paint the incident as an attempted robbery and said security personnel should also be grilled.

He appreciated President Pervez Musharraf for taking personal interest in the matter and pledged to continue their campaign till the culprits were brought to justice.