MULTAN, Sept 8: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has expressed concern over the deteriorating healthcare standard at the Nishter Hospital which caters services to the better part of south Punjab and adjoining districts of Balochistan and Sindh.

The Multan Task Force of the commission has released a report about the state-of-affairs at the 1,200-bed giant Nishter Hospital. Portraying an apathetic picture of the institution, the report urges the authorities concerned to take stock of the situation as otherwise the disgruntled patients will move towards the expensive private hospitals.

It also calls for attention of the authorities towards the mushroom growth of private hospitals around the Nishter Hospital and claims that most of them are owned by professors and doctors posted at the Nishter Medical College.

About 80 per cent of the official grant provided to the hospital is said to be spent on the payment of staff salaries, but most of hospital officials for their vested interests persuade patients for treatment at private hospitals.

Most of the diagnostic instruments at the hospital often remain out of order, perhaps, to give boost to the business of private laboratories working just outside the hospital under the patronage of NMC professors.

Only one out of eight dialysis machines in the Urology ward was in working condition when the HRCP team visited there. The only dialysis machine is devoid of disinfectant, thus becoming a major source of spreading of all types of Hepatitis.

The hospital management has yet to install six new dialysis machines it has received recently, the report adds. The ETT machine at the cardiology ward was also found dysfunctional.

A majority of the patients, including those admitted to cardiology ward, have to buy medicines from their own pocket despite tall claims by the hospital management that the patients especially those admitted to the emergency and intensive care wards are provided free medicines.

Besides, the condition of physical infrastructure at the hospital is also apathetic. A few days ago, four patients died at the emergency ward when the hospital could not take alternative steps to plug in power after the failure of normal electricity supply.