PESHAWAR, June 24: Most of the poor patients in public sector hospitals are suffering because people from well-to-do-families are also getting medicines from the zakat fund, officials said.

“Nearly 60 per cent of the people getting medicines in the government-owned hospitals are well-off, but we cannot refuse to give them medicines from the zakat fund,” said a doctor at one of the teaching hospitals.

He said that people were misusing the zakat distribution system. Earlier, poor patients were required to get zakat certificates from local zakat chairmen and verify them from district zakat chairmen, but the MMA government in the NWFP directed the hospitals to issue medicines to patients only on the recommendation of local chairmen. The verification by district chairmen was done away with, he said.

According to him, the local chairmen now issue zakat forms to everyone contacting them.

The city’s hospitals receive around Rs250 million per annum for poor patients, but more often the institutions remain short of funds. There was no system through which the bogus recipients of zakat’s medicines could be prevented, because they carry several forms attested by the local chairmen.

Every patient under zakat was entitled to get medicines worth Rs1,000 on a single visit, he said and added that they receive Rs500 or more from the contractor who issue zakat drugs. The contractor also earn enormous amount by issuing substandard drugs.

Some doctors say that the medicines were issued to both indoor and outdoor patients from the fund and some wealthy people get drugs worth Rs40,000 from the zakat fund in one go.

Sources said that the MMA government had launched a free treatment campaign for Hepatitis C patients from the zakat fund and around 150 patients were registered at the city hospitals.

“Majority of the hepatitis C patients who are using the zakat funds are from well-off families,” a doctor said, adding that their treatment from zakat fund was affecting the poor and deserving patients.

Officials said that it took painfully long time to get zakat funds released. More often, patients had to wait for weeks and even months to get treated despite the fact that under rules the government was required to release the fund in two instalments every 6 months.

The sources said that even some cases of Christians and Afghan refugees using the zakat fund have been reported. Staff of the hospitals also drew their share from the fund, he said.