Enforce HC directives
We welcome the High Court (HC) directive that all private clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centres must put on public display the list of charges for various services they provide. The HC has also directed that all general hospitals must have ICU/CCU units at the district level. The most important measure that the HC has ordered is of course, the setting up of a panel of experts to formulate rules and regulations that will effectively monitor clinics, diagnostic centres and hospitals.
For too long the privately owned hospitals and other medical centres have been taking patients for a ride. There have been long standing allegations by patients of overcharging for tests and medical care. Equally disturbing is the fact that medical centres, particularly hospitals and clinics are so rigid in their paperwork that patients have to fill up forms before they can avail medical services, even if they need emergency treatment. These instances speak volumes of a regime that is by and large unregulated and hence cause much of the aggravation faced by patients.
The HC has given directives which the Directorate General of Health Services/Ministry of Health should have on their own enforced long ago. Concrete steps should now be taken to make the burgeoning and hugely profitable private medicare conform to the Medical Practice and Private Clinics and Laboratories (Regulation) Ordinance, 1982. This would certainly pave the way to address many of the problems patients regularly face.
- Courtesy: The Daily Star /Editorial/ Jul 26, 2018
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