I RECENTLY went to the UK for about two weeks. During my stay in London, I got an appointment with a cardiologist of the King’s Hospital at his private clinic at Harley Street.

When my name was called, I walked towards the consultant’s room. The door was opened by the consultant himself. He welcomed me inside. He listened patiently and examined my papers.

Then he examined me and proposed some tests. I thanked him and asked him the amount of his fee. He said: “Mr Bhutta, don’t bother, we will settle the bill after all the investigations are done and at the time of final prescription.”

He came to say goodbye and opened the door for me, subsequently carrying out all the necessary tests and apprising me of my heart condition. Finally, he called me to his clinic for a final briefing and counselling session, following which he wrote out a prescription. On being asked, he said he would be happy to provide professional advice on my return home if required, free of charge.

Our doctors, on the other hand, collect their fees before seeing the patient and most of them are not courteous. Similarly, fees for tests and hospitalisation charges, sometimes running into several hundreds of thousands of rupees, are required to be deposited before you are admitted to the hospital.

When will our doctors learn to be humble and humane? When they go abroad to study, why don’t they try to emulate doctors’ conduct there?

Riaz Bhutta
Lahore

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018