“The Punjab Government is spending huge resources of billions of rupees for the provision of quality health care facilities to the people as healthy life is a very precious gift of Almighty Allah to the people and healthy people are a basic entity of a healthy society.”
This is crux of the message which Provincial Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has said in his message on the occasion of the World Health Day. The Chief Minister has also highlighted number of measures his government is taking for improving healthcare system and setting things right in the important health sector by introducing reforms and setting new targets for achievement though improved committed performance to the people.
But despite all these welfare steps being taken by the provincial government, all is not well in the provincial health services down the line as corruption prevails in the health department as elsewhere in other departments from top to bottom and bottom to the top.
I was shocked and surprised the other day when a medical store employee said that his store pays a fixed amount every month to the Drug Inspector of the area for giving a clean chit without checking quality, expiry date and other things at the medical store. Quite obviously, this giving clean chit practice in lieu of payment of fixed amount every month is going on and flourishing in the entire area allocated to the said Drug Inspector. This is sad reflection on the check and balance system which is supposedly to be in place but somehow is not being enforced.
Who is going to check and curb corruption down the line of the health department functionaries? This a billion dollars question to the Provincial Health Minister, Health Secretary and on top to the Chief Minister who is taking so much pain for ensuring provision of best possible health care facilities to the people but all is not all that well down the line, please.
Em Zee Rifat
LAHORE
