RECENTLY, my wife got sick and we had to visit DHQ Hospital, Gilgit. The doctor advised my wife to have a CT scan. When she entered the CT scan room at 10.00am on Sept 10, the person at the reception took her prescription so that we could see the doctor. By 12 noon we had not been attended to. I then went out of the waiting room to know about the doctor’s whereabouts.

I asked a paramedical steward about it , and he said all doctors had just left for a Fateha Khwani and now the working hours were closed.

To double-check, I went to the rooms of other doctors and found their rooms closed and hundreds of patients waiting outside.

I have some questions for the authorities concerned. Does the OPD at the DHQ Hospital work 9am to 12 noon? Are doctors delivering their services free of cost? Do they work under any rules and regulations or are they independent?

Mirza Hussain
Hunza Nagar

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014