THIS refers to conditions of private hospitals in big cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad. I, being a doctor, am disgusted over the maltreatment of patients in these private hospitals in the name of medical treatment.People go to private hospitals to seek better healthcare owing to lack of facilities and lethargy at government-run hospitals. However, things in private hospitals are not as good as they should have been. In private hospitals quacks are recruited on low wages with hardly any experience. Honestly speaking, these people are not doctors. Therefore, sometimes they fail to treat patients because of lack of competency.

Secondly, the private hospital administration wishes to earn more and more by giving unnecessary fluids to patients which proves dangerous for some patients. Fluids should be given when patient is having either moderate or severe dehydration or he is unable to take something orally.

The most important and serious thing is that private hospitals use third-rate medicines from substandard pharmaceutical companies. This trend is growing in private hospitals.

I request the authorities concerned to look into the problem.

DR IRFAN ALMANI Lahore