ISLAMABAD: The overall distressing and poor condition of the health sector has once again come to the attention of the Supreme Court when it expressed the desire to revamp completely the entire sector since it is directly concerned with the right to life.

“The matter is directly connected with the right to life of the people for its dependence on the quality of health of which the basic component is doctors,” observed acting Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while hearing a case on Tuesday about the state of public health in the country.

The apex court had taken a suo motu notice in 2012 after the unfortunate deaths at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) because of spurious drugs or wrong prescription of blood thinning and lipid lowering medicines. The matter was initiated on a note by then chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani when he was a judge in a case about the death of more than 90 heart patients under treatment at the PIC.

“Earth is all about life and without life it will be an abandoned globe,” the acting chief justice observed, adding that life should be the biggest priority of governments.

“Please tell your governments that we do not want an adversarial proceedings rather benevolent litigation for the good of the people because enforcement of the fundamental rights was the prime duty of the Supreme Court — a duty which it cannot shrug off or overlook,” Justice Nisar said while pointing towards law officers of federal and provincial governments.

During the proceedings, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman mentioned the tragic incident in Layyah district where 26 people died after consuming toxic sweets. According to reports, these people died due to absence of proper medical facilities.

“Everyone is in agreement that health of our health sector is itself bad,” observed Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.

The bench expressed concern over the mushroom growth of medical colleges in the country and the quality of doctors such institutions produces without fulfilling essential criteria required for getting accreditation from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), including attachment of a 500-bed hospital with every medical college.

“I have seen medical colleges sprung up along the motorway, I wonder from where students must be coming,” the acting chief justice said.

At last hearing on Dec 30, 2014, the Supreme Court had identified five areas which needed immediate rectification for revamping of the health sector.

The areas highlighted includes quality of medical education, training, service conditions, essential for producing adequate and proficiently trained human resources, including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.

One of the major areas identified in the last hearing was the need of preventing commercialism in medical profession like promotion of certain branded drugs by doctors in lieu of graft. To discourage the tendency, implementation of quality standards for procurement, disbursement, storage and manufacturing of medicines both in the public and private sectors were emphasised.

For functional health facilities like hospitals, especially in public sector, the provision of proper building, diagnostic and other equipments, utility and hospitals services are necessary.

Likewise, there is a need of emergency medical services at the levels of tehsil and district hospitals. Effective and robust monitoring and evaluation system was also one of the key features of the areas identified earlier.

During the proceedings, the acting chief justice regretted that doctors and nurses had to contribute to buy equipment meant to stitch the incision in one of the hospitals in Punjab which lacked even the basic medical equipments, including life saving apparatus like ventilators. Recently, story about sub-standard incubators for newborn babies surfaced, Justice Nisar regretted.

A rich man could get treatment from anywhere, but ordinary people had to suffer because of lack of proper medical facilities in public hospitals and increasing prices of medicines, Justice Khilji remarked.

The court, however, postponed further proceedings for the third week of May when Deputy Attorney General Sohail Mehmood sought permission to submit a comprehensive report on behalf of the PMDC spelling out council’s criteria and registration of medical colleges.

The provincial governments will also submit respective reports in this regard.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2016