KARACHI, March 5: A draft ordinance pertaining to the improvement, safety and quality of patient care at private hospitals cleared by the Sindh chief minister about 40 days ago is still awaiting promulgation. On the other hand the grievances of public continue to rise.
Under the proposed ordinance an accreditation and licensing authority will be set up in Sindh for hospitals, clinics, laboratories, physiotherapy centres, pathologists, nursing homes, maternity homes, diagnostic clinics and other health providers, including hakeems.
According to health department officials, the body will be autonomous and regulate privately run health care facilities besides evaluating the organisations’ performances in areas that affect patient care. Government officials believe the proposed regulation is of critical importance to formulate and implement certain standards for quality assurance in private sector healthcare and link those to the cost being charged from patients. Our concern is to make private hospitals services affordable and cost effective and regulate diagnostic and service charges, said an official.
Inquiries reveal a draft vetted by the law department and approved by the chief minister during his meeting with the provincial health minister and health secretary on January 24 is lying in Governor’s House. The officials concerned were not ready to come on record why the promulgation plan has been delayed again.
The passion for the regulation seen earlier among government quarters seems to have waned, as the private sector hospitals, including charity and teaching ones, do not like to be regulated, said health experts. Some amendments have already been made in the original draft ordinance in consultation with representatives of some private health establishments.
The revised draft ordinance was sent to the Governor House, the accreditation authority in the case of private hospitals and clinics will be a fully autonomous body, with its headquarters at Karachi, and will be headed by a chairman, who will be nominated from the private sector by the chief minister.
Earlier, the health secretary was suggested as chairman of the new authority, while the vice-chairman was to be taken from private hospital side, a source said, saying that the chief minister will also nominate two persons of medical eminence as members in the authority.
The members of the committee should be the vice-chancellors of public and private medical universities, two persons of medical eminence, one representative each from the Pakistan Dental Council, radiologists’ society, Private Hospitals’ Association Karachi, one representative each of Family Physicians or General Practitioners, Pathological Laboratory Association, Unani, Ayurvedic and Homeopathic Association.
A grade 20 director/secretary will also be appointed in the authority which will be empowered to give accreditation to health providers and inspect in check list form by medical auditors, call for any medical information from health providers and make relevant regulations.
On the other hand patients want checks on private hospitals and demand inquiry or inspection against private hospitals, as in the absence of any regulatory body, according to them; the private concerns are free to charge patients at will.
A senior college teacher said that it was negligence on the part of two private hospitals, including one teaching hospital that his father, who was injured in a road accident, became a complicated medical case.
The management of one private hospital discharged my father when he was on oxygen, he adds, mentioning that he had to take loans from friends, banks and colleagues to pay for treatment.
Another patient who underwent eye-surgery at a private hospital on Stadium Road claimed that despite surgery and post surgery continuous treatment one of his eyes had lost vision due to the negligence and ineptness of the hospital staff in question.
Bad manners by the staff and doctors, lack of interest in patient and not informing a patient about his condition, waiting for hours despite prior appointment, out-of-order equipment and questionable tests giving dubious readings, increase in check-up charges and other fees on one pretext or the other, literal extortion of large sums of money in emergency cases, not allowing patients to talk over telephone with their doctors were some of the daily occurrences or encounters experienced by patients and their relatives at hospitals.
A health department source said the authorities come across reports about such complaints repeatedly, but they are unable to intervene as they don’t have powers to do so.
