The city hospitals run by the Punjab government are facing problems in purchasing medicines for indoor and outdoor patients and have started charging fees for the tests to support their financial obligations.
Hospital sources said that the Health department of Punjab had directed the managements of government hospitals to ‘manage’ from their own resources.
Following these instructions, the hospital managements started charging fees for various medical tests, including blood tests, ultrasound tests and x-rays.
However, these charges are comparatively less than the fee for various tests being charged in private hospitals.
According to sources, Rs 100 to Rs 250 is being charged for x ray, Rs 150 for ultrasound, blood tests etc.
Around 20,000 patients visit OPDs of the city hospitals everyday. A majority of these patients belong to the poor segment of society and are unable to pay fees for the tests.
Jinnah hospital MS Dr Fazalur Rehman confirmed that there was shortage of medicines and added that the management had prioritised the purchase of medicines.
However, some hospital administrators denied any problem regarding shortage of medicines in their hospitals.
