End partisan lobbying in healthcare sector

We appreciate Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim's admission that political lobbying hinders his efforts to close substandard clinics. But, criticising the culture will not suffice to put an end to it. The ministry must crackdown on substandard private hospitals and clinics because their very existence is testimony to the terrible state of our private healthcare system.

On the one hand, the minister's comment that "no other country sees such level of lobbying" reflects how deeply rooted the culture of political lobbying is in our system. On the other, it also shows the failure of successive governments to establish a system which places greater public interest above private interest.

In the case of hospitals and clinics, people's very lives are at stake. For the last few years, there has been a mushroom growth of private hospitals and clinics across the country that seek to cash in on the absence of a quality and affordable public healthcare sector.

"Hospitals" have been allowed to be built in unlikely places—from commercial flats to residential houses, with many failing to meet even the minimum standards. Too often we come across reports of grave mistreatment in private clinics. Yet, the administration has been very lax in terms of taking corrective measures.

Absence of a robust public healthcare system has led to the anarchy in the health sector. The government needs to invest heavily in public health, while reining in poor-quality "mushroom" hospitals and clinics that only rob people of money rather than provide them with proper treatment.