I AM an 80-year-old retiree with several health issues. I am grateful to my former employers, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), for providing me full medical coverage when I need it the most. As I am not being fit enough to visit the PIA Medical Centre for getting my medicines every month, my wife does this on my behalf.

Before the medical centre shifted to airport, it used to take an average of two hours to see the doctor and receive medicines. Now, after the centre has been shifted to the airport, the process takes half a day. Lately, however, the task of obtaining medicines has begun to consume an entire day or more. My wife visited the centre on April 28, arriving before 9am. She was surprised to see more than a hundred people at the reception and in the open waiting area.

In addition to the machine issuing numbers, manual tokens were also being issued against a stack of books in the shed. The computer registration process alone took one-and-a-half hour, and her turn to see the doctor came at 4.45pm.

The queue at the pharmacy was so long that she reached the service window at 8.10pm. If the patients or their families have to spend an entire day waiting for medicines, it amounts to punishing them for trying to avail themselves of their rights. The management should urgently look into the matter

Asif Jah
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2023