KARACHI, Aug 7: There is a dire need to create awareness about patients’ rights which include education and a better understanding of various ailments as it makes disease management a lot easier.

These views were expressed by Sindh Health Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed at a programme held to mark ‘Patient family education and patient family rights day’ at the Aga Khan University auditorium here on Tuesday with Adviser to the Sindh chief minister Fatima Surraya Bajia as the guest of honour.

The provincial minister stressed the need for creating mass awareness regarding patients’ rights which, he said, were given due importance in the developed countries but unfortunately were a neglected subject in our part of the world.

He deplored that many government doctors posted in the rural parts of the country were drawing their salaries from those areas but were actually working in cities.

The minister said that there was no dearth of talent or resources in Pakistan, adding that the citizens needed a mindset to serve the humanity selflessly. The government, he said, was working towards the improvement of the health sector for which doctors and paramedics were appointed so as to fill the vacant posts and steps were also under way to make the basic health units operational through public-private partnership.

Lauding the services of the Aga Khan University Hospital, the health minister said that the institution was a example for other private hospitals which, by and large, had become merely money-minting enterprises. He said that nurses could play a crucial role in protecting patients’ rights.

Speaking about various steps the AKUH is taking to facilitate the patients, Dr Firdous Jahan, co-chair committee of Patient Family Education and Patient Family Rights, said that a patients’ helpline would be established by the end of this year at the hospital and plans were being made to create awareness about patients’ rights in other health care facilities as well.

Dr Khurshid Khawaja, Director Nursing Services, said that best possible care without any discrimination was the right of every patient. “They also have the right to education about all the relevant aspects of well-being, guidance, privacy and confidentiality, refuse treatment and above all to seek second opinion and question the medical staff.

As part of the day’s celebrations, prizes were distributed among the winners of poster and quiz contest and the representatives of Clifton Medical Service, Community Health Centre and paediatrics ward B, which had shown complete compliance to patients family education and patient family rights standards.