I WANT to highlight the hurdles and miseries faced by government servants in getting reimbursement of the expenses incurred on their medical treatment.

It is a fact that many government servants prefer not to apply for reimbursement of medical expenditure on account of undue objections raised by the hospital staff. In Punjab, almost half-a-century-old medical reimbursement rules are being followed.

It is the bureaucracy of the province which is mainly responsible for misguiding the ruling class in such matters. Instead of making these rules simple and people-friendly, they have been made more obscure and intricate just to torment public employees.

These outdated medical reimbursement rules should be amended to facilitate the hapless government employees who have to be content with compromised treatment at public-sector hospitals.

These employees should also be allowed to get treatment at approved private-sector hospitals just like employees of other semi-autonomous organisations.

Moreover, standard operating procedures should be formulated for the guidance of Punjab government employees in place of the dubious internal correspondence of the health department to misuse their discretionary powers.

There are confusions intentionally made in the instructions issued to hospitals by the health department just to create bottlenecks for nothing.

FAROOQ BASHIR BUTT Lahore