Residents of the federal capital have demanded the authorities concerned to prepare a mechanism for fixing the fee of medical practitioners, who are allegedly looting the patients in the name of treatment in their private clinics.
According to the citizens, due to absence of fee structure at official level, there is massive exploitation in this regard and every doctor is charging “unjustifiable treatment fee” from patients.
They said that due to this situation, patients have to bear heavy expenses during their treatment as mostly doctors not only get heavy fees but also prescribe them medicines of pharmaceutical companies which sponsor them.
A patient Aslam Awan said, “It has become a routine practice that doctors, particularly medical specialists of different fields collect heavy fees from patients without considering their financial condition.”
He said it is astonishing that senior government doctors operate their private clinics during their duty timings “which is against professional ethics and norms”, adding that in the absence of senior doctors, trainee doctors examine the patients at out-patient departments.
“Private practice of doctors who are working in public hospitals should be banned and there should be a monitoring system to check whether they are observing duty hours in their respective hospitals or not,” said another patient, Salim Altaf.
He asked the quarters concerned to take notice of the absence of senior doctors at the OPD and different wards during duty hours.
He suggested that these doctors should be allowed to run their clinics in same hospitals in evening time to facilitate patients by charging low fees.
“This way patients from far-flung areas of the country will also be facilitated who fail to get consultation from the doctors due to heavy load at the OPD in day time and limited hospital timings.”
He said that despite getting hefty fees, unlike medical practices in abroad where one doctor examines five to seven patients in a day, in Pakistan each doctor examines several patients daily in his private clinic. This is against professional ethics, he said.
When contacted, an official of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) said that the hospital management was trying its level best to ensure best medical care to the patients.
He added that a sufficient number of doctors perform duties at OPDs, including medical officers, professors, assistant professors and post-graduates.
He said that the hospital was established with an aim to provide special healthcare services to the patients with critical diseases.
However, the hospital has now become a major medical facility, which is visited by patients suffering from different diseases from all over the country, he said.
