PESHAWAR, Jan 11: Owing to minimum allocations of budget for health sector, private practice in the government hospitals should be encouraged to reduce the financial constraints of the public sector hospitals.
This was stated by the chief executive of Government Post-Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Lady Reading Hospital, Dr Jamil Ahmed Khan while talking to APP here on Wednesday.
About the failure of private practice by the specialist doctors in the three major pubic sector hospitals — Lady Reading Hospital(LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex — he said:”It was started without proper planning and home work.”
The private practice by the specialist doctors in the government hospitals could prove a success provided private hospitals and private practice of the doctors was banned.
He said majority of the people of the province visit LRH, KTH and HMC due to meagre health facilities at the District Headquarters Hospitals.
Dr Jamil said proper attention should be given to DHQs hospitals to reduce the burden of patients on these hospitals.
He said the Punjab government
has upgraded DHQs hospitals at Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan, reducing patient load on the Meo hospital Lahore, besides it was also providing excellent health facilities to the people at their doorsteps.
Comparing the treatment cost at private and government hospitals, he said, room charges at private hospitals were 1,000 rupees per day while in LRH, it was only Rs 400 and Rs 800 for Boultan Block.
He said C.T. scan charges at LRH were Rs 1,200 as compared to Rs 2,500 in the private hospitals while x-ray charges in the LRH were Rs 80 and Rs 120 in the private clinics.
With the introduction of better medical facilities in the government hospitals, the private health institutions had been started reducing charges of various medical tests etc, he said, and adding an environment was being created to provide better health facilities to the visitors comparatively at cheaper rates.
About the ill-functioning of the cardiology department of the LRH, he agreed that the performance of the department was not up to the mark despite it was manned by eight senior cardiologists.