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November 20, 2003
Cure beyond bias
The MMA government passed a resolution which lays down that women patients will be examined and given test only by female medical staff, in a province where health facilities are already inadequate, reports Sadia Qasim Shah
Zubaida Bibi holds a diploma in electro cardiography (ECG) and is the only ECG technician in the NWFP. This makes her quite sought after by hundreds of women patients who hesitate to have medical tests conducted by male technicians in the other hospitals.
Zubaida said that many women patients come to her at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, one of the city’s main public hospitals, from far off districts only because they have heard that a female ECG technician is available at the hospital.
There are some tests like the Exercise Tolerance Test (ETT) which involves contact with the chest of the patient and female patients feel embarrassed when treated by a male technician since there are no female ones around.
Zubaida observes that the reason why women don’t become technicians is because there are no prospects for them in this field. There is one Paramedical Training Institute at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) but it has no female technician.
To obtain a diploma, the candidate must have an Intermediate (science group) certificate and two years of training without a stipend, after which they become technicians but without any surety that they will get a BPS-05 scale government job.
The pay is very low and without any reasonable incentives for women which is why they prefer nursing. Women seek nursing schools also because they have a better chance of promotions in the profession, says Zubaida.
She works in the morning shift and performs ECG tests on around a 100 female patients daily at the KTH. Often when she is not around the nurses on duty are asked to perform the ECG tests, but Zubaida observes that a nurse cannot conduct them better than a trained ECG technician.
In a province where ignorance and poverty prevails and district hospitals even lack male technicians and doctors, a resolution passed on the segregation of treatment of patients on the basis of gender is completely unrealistic, especially when there is already a shortage of female staff at public hospitals. This only goes to show how legislators are far removed from reality.
The medical facilities in the district headquarter hospitals are not satisfactory, so critical patients are usually referred to the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital or the Hayatabad Medical Complex, the main hospitals of the provincial metropolis which treat patients not only from all over the province but also from Afghanistan.
These hospitals are burdened with hundreds of patients including purdah observing women who are examined by male doctors, and their medical tests are performed by male technicians or nurses due to lack of female technicians.
One resolution passed in May by a majority, led by an MMA member of the provincial assembly, Dr Zakir Shah, addressed the deployment of women technicians at public hospitals for checkups of female patients. The majority passed this resolution keeping in view that it is against religion and culture for male doctors or technicians to examine women.
Dr Simeen Mehmood, an MPA of PML-Q, immediately opposed the resolution. She said that it was not possible at this time to adopt such a measure. She stressed how emphasis needs to be put on saving lives, without any discrimination on the basis of gender.
The so-called think tanks of the MMA government did not go through the official records to check whether female staff especially the trained female technicians were available or not. They just went ahead and issued directives to all public sector hospitals in August that ECG and ultrasound examinations of women patients were to be conducted by female staff.
There are no hospitals exclusively for women with trained women technicians, so without the administrative capability to provide such health facilities, it is impossible to implement the resolution. But the resolution was passed unanimously so it is binding on the government to implement it.
The NWFP health department had issued directives to the administration of all the public sector hospitals to ensure that electrocardiography and ultrasound of women patients are conducted by women staff and technicians. But, according to a health department official, only one female ECG technician is available across the province.
The only female ECG technician at the Khyber Teaching Hospital performs her duty in the morning shift and the male technicians works in the evening while there is no female technician in the Lady Reading Hospital, another one of the public hospitals of the city where women patients from the surrounding districts come for treatment and medical tests. There is no female ultrasound specialist in any public hospital of the province. The province’s only qualified ultrasonographist has left the country for good.
According to a male ultrasound specialist, about 100 ultrasounds are performed daily on female patients, if men were to stop carrying these out then where would all the female patients go, as there is no female ultrasound specialist in any public sector hospital in the entire province?
There is no female anaesthesia technician and dispenser throughout the province. Female patients are operated upon for haemorrhoids or piles by male surgeons because there are only two female general surgeons in the entire province. The hospitals still lack the services of female X-ray, laboratory and physiotherapy technicians. There is no female radiographer in the 1,300 bed hospital, a radiologist of KTH said.
Any sensible person can see that hospitals need to be equipped with the latest medical health facilities and qualified and trained staff need to be appointed before gender restrictions can be imposed. It is the government’s responsibility to first and foremost provide the best medical care to all its citizens without any discrimination, prejudice or bias on any basis — least of all gender
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