FAISALABAD: The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) was only ‘pestering’ registered professionals while quacks were free to play with the lives of patients.

These views were expressed at a combined meeting of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and the Medical Teachers Association (MTA) held here on Wednesday.

The meeting was convened in the backdrop of the PHC decision against an orthopedic surgeon Prof Dr Rasool Ahmed Chaudhary who was found guilty of performing wrong surgery on a BSc student, Marryam Sajjad, of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The PHC concluded the inquiry after more than 10-month-long investigations and recommended the PMDC to cancel the registration of Dr Chaudhary, who got retired a couple of weeks ago after attaining the age of superannuation. The commission has also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the Allied Hospital where the surgery was conducted.

Sources privy to the meeting told Dawn the participants termed the commission’s decision against Dr Chaudhary harsh as compared to his negligence in surgery.

The PMA Punjab Vice-President Dr Tufail Mohammad said globally medical negligence was a ‘common error’. In developed countries like US and UK such ‘errors’ were committed even by renowned surgeons, he added.

The participants said if they started following the criteria laid down by the PHC, the patients with spinal abnormalities, children suffering from blood cancer and those in need of neurosurgical procedure etc, would have to bear extra financial burden and only be treated at major infirmaries of Punjab having modern gadgets.

They said even in major cities like Faisalabad the procedures like spinal surgery, endocrinology, pediatric nephrology, pediatric oncology etc were not available.

They decided that onwards the doctors would give priority to job security and prefer to save their skin before treating the patients.

PMA information secretary Dr Mohammad Irfan told Dawn though there must be minimum criteria for the hospitals or clinics providing healthcare facilities, the parameters for this should be designed keeping in view the financial conditions of common Pakistanis rather than aping the systems in developed countries.

He appreciated the PHC for inspections of different hospitals, but insisted there should be no discrimination.

He said the PHC was inspecting only major government hospitals which were already catering to the healthcare needs of thousands of people. But, he alleged, quacks were openly running their businesses even in cities.

The meeting demanded formulation of a comprehensive health policy like other countries so that both doctors and patients could be saved from trouble.

The participants said because doctors in the government hospitals had to treat a large number of patients, the chances of error would be there, and that could be controlled through a solid health policy.