BEING a healthcare professional, I would like to present a personal view on the debate of the right of the common man to have quality care robotic surgery free of cost. Unfortunately, the remarks of the provincial minister in Sindh suggest the authorities are rather clueless about technology acquisition.

Do the people living in this country have the right to opt for cutting-edge technology, like robotic surgery, for their treatment or not? This is the only question worth asking in the current situation.

The argument, as articulated by a provincial minister, is that since private-sector hospitals do not find it feasible to invest in such technology, we, in the public sector, should not even think about it.

Just take the case of organ transplant. Once there was a strong lobby against it, and the lobby still exists that says that with scarcity of potable water and prevalence of communicable diseases in the country, we should not think of transplant.

Our stance was, and still is, that we, the community of doctors, cannot afford to let patients die since they cannot afford treatment in private-sector hospitals. All transplant programmes must be within academic institutions and in the public sector. Just look around, kidney transplant in the public sector is done at zero cost to the patient, while the private sector does it at a cost that goes up as high as Rs3 million; the baseline being Rs1 million.

Drawing a parallel, the minister concerned should actually come forward and say that the government will form a regulatory body to supervise the application of technology in the national health sector, and will ensure that it is available to the common man without any cost, just like transplant.

This investment must be in public-sector institutions. The cost of technology for procurement and for maintenance must be borne by the government as well as by the community. And if the govern-ment really means business, it must further guarantee that the private sector will not be allowed to fleece the common man.

Prof (Dr) Asad Shahzad Hasan Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT)
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2023