ISLAMABAD: Citizens on Sunday demanded the authorities concerned to take notice of non-observance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by medical practitioners in major hospitals of the federal capital.
They claimed that the behaviour of doctors with the patients was totally inhuman at out-patient departments (OPD), emergency and different wards of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and Federal Government Polyclinic (FGPC).
They said doctors should ensure good behaviour with the patients because it directly or indirectly affected them, adding that their private practice should also not interfere their work at PIMS.
The citizens observed that due to their busy schedule in private clinics, most senior doctors of the hospital remained absent from their duties, while untrained postgraduate trainee doctors performed duties in their absence.
The patients further complained that despite their absence from duty the whole day, doctors were still marked present on duty charts and even received overtime charges from the hospital management.
Sherbaz Khan, a patient at PIMS medical ward said, “No one in the hospital takes any responsibility regarding patients care, as most doctors remained busy in convincing patients to come to their private clinic to receive proper treatment.”
He said patients expected from the medical practitioners to provide them quality of care which was timely, compassionate and dignified.”
“Under professional ethics, medical practitioners are bound to avoid any non-discriminating attitude or exploiting vulnerable situations in the hospital,” Aftab Qureshi, another patient admitted at PIMS said.
He said under the code of ethics prepared by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) for medical practitioners, gross negligence in respect of professional duties may lead to suspension or removal from services.
Asadullah Khan, another patient at PIMS, observed that the hospital doctors should be discouraged from entering into business deals with patients or other arrangements that included financial incentives from pharmaceutical companies.
He said that in all the dealings with the patients, every doctor should keep in mind that the interest of the patient should be the major consideration.
Another patient Mubarak Ali was of the view that due to non-observance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by the staff at the emergency of FGPC, patients faced several hardships, particularly those who were admitted in the hospital in a critical condition.
He said that sometimes patients in the emergency department needed immediate response from expert doctors but only general physicians were found there while the specialist doctors could not reach the ward in time.
Adnan Haider, an attendant with a patient at PIMS, said that only well-trained medical and non-medical staff having full knowledge of SOPs and all other procedures, should be assigned to PIMS emergency department.
