HEALTHCARE is, in fact, one of the most important components of any country’s infrastructure. Pakistan, indeed, has many state-of-the-art hospitals in urban centres of the country, but in small cities, there is a lack of basic health services. There is a famous phrase in Punjab: ‘Enu Lahore lay jao’ (Take him to Lahore). This phrase is commonly used when a hospital fails to provide health services to a seriously ill patient, reflecting the lack of trust in healthcare facilities outside major cities.

I visited a major public hospital recently and faced many problems. There were long queues in the hospital due to poor management. A large number of people from different cities had come to seek health services, but had to wait for long, especially those seeking radiology services, such as CT and MRI scans.

If the state is unable to provide health services smoothly, it is a failure of gover-nance. There is no effective mechanism of accountability for doctors, paramedical staff and other hospital personnel. Pakistan has a large population, and these hospitals are not able to manage the workload.

There is a need for more hospitals and separate laboratories and radiology centres so that citizens can access these services easily and at affordable prices.

The relevant authorities need to take a serious notice of these prevailing issues and work to improve the quality as well as accessibility of public healthcare services.

Muhammad Ejaz Ali
Pattoki

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2026