LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Friday took suo motu notice of the expensive healthcare facilities being provided in private hospitals of the provincial capital.
“Private hospitals fleece patients by charging them hefty amount on a per-day basis,” the chief justice remarked while hearing a case of public interest at the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry. He also summoned the owners of more than 12 private hospitals to appear before the court on Sunday and expressed displeasure over private hospitals’ act of using roads as parking spaces.
“If I see cars parked outside private hospitals, the hospital will be charged Rs10,000 per car and the amount will go to the dams fund,” he said.
Notices were also issued to the health secretary and Punjab health care commission.
It merits mention that the CJP has taken notices of loopholes in the health sector in Punjab earlier as well. In such a hearing, he took notice of disparity in salaries of doctors working at government-owned health facilities, saying those called from abroad are paid a hefty sum while the local ones are given a small amount.
Speaking about Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute, Justice Nisar had said doctors at the state-of-the-art facility of the government get a salary of Rs1.2 million while the ones working at a public hospitals get Rs0.2 million.
He had demanded the government hospital doctors be also paid a high salary so that they do not have to practise illegally and fulfil their duties at government hospitals with honesty.
The chief justice also sought details of hospitals being run on funds by Recep Tayyib Erdogan Trust and said that he would continue to survey hospitals even if anyone had a problem with him doing so.