LAHORE: While the issue of non-availability of free medicines and treatment for the poor patients in public sector teaching hospitals is making rounds, the powerful elite in the bureaucracy has introduced the ‘VIP culture’ of providing protocol to the officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and the Provincial Management Services (PMS) and their families for treatment at the state-run hospitals across the province.

It was evident from an official notification issued by Punjab Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education Department (PSH&MED) Secretary Azmat Mahmud who directed the vice chancellors, principals, and heads of all the government hospitals to give priority to the bureaucrats and their families for the treatment.

The order was issued in consultation with the Services & General Administration Department (S&GAD) with instructions to the heads of the teaching hospitals to follow it in letter and spirit.

Recently, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had visited the Mayo Hospital and Jinnah Hospital where she found most of patients complaining against unavailability of free treatment/medicines. The issue came to the spotlight when the CM removed the top heads of these two hospitals and issued standing instructions to give priority to the deserving patients.

Health secy issues notification for preferential treatment to PAS, PMS officers; appoints focal person for liaison

An official declares the health secretary’s move the decades-old bureaucratic tactics to uphold supremacy by exercising arbitrary powers, saying the order has been issued at a time when the financial crisis hit the hospitals hard and the patients are in a dire need of action to get treatment.

He says that heads of the tertiary care hospitals have been strictly directed to the make sure that the PAS and PMS officers and their families get preferential treatment for the specialised healthcare at the hospitals under the administrative control of the PSH&MED.

For this purpose, as per the notification, the health secretary has appointed an officer of the health department as a special focal person for liaison with the heads of all the teaching institutes besides the vice chancellors.

“In pursuance of the letter issued by the Welfare Wing, Nauman Jamil, the senior pharmacist, has been nominated as Focal Person on behalf of the Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Department Secretary to coordinate with all the vice chancellors, principals, deans, executive directors and medical superintendents for the provision of necessary medical services to the government officers of PAS and PMS and their families from all the medical health facilities under the administrative control of the PSH &MED,” reads the notification.

The official lamented that this ‘exceptional health facility’ provided for the bureaucracy was even not available to the officers of the judiciary, lawyers, or officers/employees of any other government department.

As per the standing instructions, he said, the focal person would contact the heads of the institute and share the briefs of the ‘VIP patients’.

The official said the focal person shall ensure that the VIP patients would immediately get beds and treatment from the on-duty doctors. He would get in contact with the heads of the hospitals for timely diagnostic facilities, including blood tests, MRI, CT Scan etc if and when recommended.

As per the given arrangements, no one would be allowed to leave the patients to wait in queues for any sort of medical facility as is witnessed in routine practice that the attendants of the poor/general patients are forced to get the same facilities in hours-long appointments.

The official claimed that the heads of the hospitals would spare an employee/protocol officer to accompany the ‘VIP patients’ during their entire stay period at the health facility, a culture that would tarnish the image of the government’s claim of ‘equal rights’ for all.

When contacted, Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said he would be able to comment on the matter after talking to the health department officers.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2025