April 04, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

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PESHAWAR, April 3: Lack of facilities at private medical centres in the city has added to the sufferings of the patients who are already at receiving end.

“There is no elevator and we have to take patients on our backs using stairs,” said relatives of patients at one of the 40 private medical centres in the Dabgari Garden area.

They said that doctors were charging high fee, but were least interested as far as facilities for patients are concerned.

Only one medical centre in the city has lifts, bathrooms and waiting rooms for patients and their attendants, a doctor said. He said that they paid Rs7,000 per month as rent to the owner of the building, but the facilities were negligible.

“Doctors send patients for X-rays, ultrasound and other investigations which are outside the building. Patients face difficulties because they have to go up and down without elevators,” said a surgeon.

In some cases, patients had to be shifted to far-off places for tests, which add to the sufferings of the critically-ill patients, he added.

He said patients also suffered a great deal owing to non-availability of bathrooms.

A senior physician said that erecting buildings to house clinics had become a lucrative business. Doctors pay hefty amounts to book space for their clinics, but were not concerned about providing facilities to patients, he added.

Most of the centres don’t have stretchers and wheelchairs to shift patients to and from the clinics, he added.

“I saw a well furnished clinic, but the waiting room for patients outside the clinic was in dilapidated condition,” said a patient from Mardan. According to him, of the six chairs in the waiting room, five were broken and dust-ridden.

A few doctors, however, have maintained good waiting rooms with ACs and TV sets.

Some of the doctors were using corridors in front of their clinics as waiting area, where they had placed some rickety benches.

The non-availability of wheel chairs and lifts have prompted patients to be accompanied by more relatives to be able to reach clinics and be taken for clinical investigations easily.