Here’s the thing about working for a newspaper: you always get to hear the most interesting stories.
Admittedly, hardly the kind of first we’d like to be known for, but an important one nonetheless, if only because it highlights the healthcare problems lying underneath the surface in PML-N’s home town
It is the year 2016. Mayo Hospital, one of the best known hospitals in Lahore, is – according to recent reports — awaiting the arrival of a deserving dignitary. The person in question must perform perhaps the most sacred of duties – cutting the ceremonial ribbon to inform all and sundry that the newest part of the hospital – in this case the new emergency ward — is open for business. Here’s the problem though – the person in question is unavailable, in fact, has been unavailable, for about two years.
So the doctors of Mayo Hospital have reportedly been unable to operate their emergency ward, providing healthcare and basically have been prevented from doing their job because a person in a position of power is too busy to steal a few moments for a photo op, and whoever is in charge of said affairs at the hospital is unwilling to make the ward operational without said dignitary’s blessings. What that means is that for two years, a fully functioning emergency ward has sat idle because of scissors and a bit of red tape.
Let that sink in.
This isn’t the first time Mayo hospital has turned up in the news recently; does anyone remember Pakistan’s first Congo Virus case? Admittedly, hardly the kind of first we’d like to be known for, but an important one nonetheless, if only because it highlights the healthcare problems lying underneath the surface in PML-N’s home town. What caught the attention of this paper in October of this year was not merely the patient himself, but what happened when he was taken for medical treatment.
Fearing the worst, his relatives brought him to the best known hospitals in the city. He was denied admittance and access to healthcare by not one but two major hospitals – Sheikh Zaid and Jinnah hospital – due to the hospitals’ lack of proper facilities. In short, they lacked isolation wards, which are needed when dealing with contagious diseases. A third hospital turned him down – Mayo hospital. Finally, the authorities had to intervene. And though Mayo Hospital took the patient in, even the administration there could do nothing more than seal off a private ward – which, despite admittedly good intentions and best efforts, an isolation chamber does not make – leaving their patients and the city vulnerable to an epidemic.
Admittedly, high profile projects look good on one’s resume – they look good in pictures too. They address infrastructure and connectivity and a healthy archive of photo op moments
With so much of the population uneducated and living too far below the poverty line to allow for expensive – though needed — healthcare or the travelling required to reach destinations where it is available, it is simply beyond comprehension why the government has not yet paid more attention to healthcare. In fact, considering the PML-N led government has had three years in office, one would think it would have made the development and access of healthcare facilities and awareness programs regarding developing diseases a bigger priority.
Admittedly, high profile projects look good on one’s resume – they look good in pictures too. They address infrastructure and connectivity and a healthy archive of photo op moments gleaned from them make for great promotional material during election season. But the government’s job is not simply restricted to the construction of roads or the cutting of ribbons. Not securing the lives of the population (most of whom cannot afford to opt for treatment abroad) is a failure of epic proportions – one that the government would be advised to rectify as soon as possible.