IF the prime minister has to go abroad to get treatment for a heart ailment, the right response from the rest of us ought to be to either wish him a speedy recovery, or if one is not a fan, to remain silent, or speak about other matters.

Instead, we have an outpouring of the vilest vitriol, with people publicly voicing opinions unworthy of a civilised society. Whatever one’s opinions about Nawaz Sharif, the wrong thing to say about any human being undergoing medical treatment is to wish him or her ill, or to question whether there was any operation at all. This is basic civilised behaviour, not a political statement.

What ought to be noted, however, is the tendency of our rulers to go abroad for treatment. The natural question to raise, in these circumstances, is why is there not enough faith in our own health facilities to receive this treatment in Pakistan.

The surgery the prime minister underwent was serious, but in this day and age it is routine procedure, and if the country’s own cardiac care facilities cannot be trusted to perform this procedure on the prime minister, why should the rest of us consider them any differently? And if they are indeed subpar, then what exactly has the prime minister’s government, or those who came before him and similarly sought treatment abroad, done about improving their quality?

I recall when a close relative underwent a serious cardiac operation in a famous facility in Lahore. The cardiologist and surgeon were top class, and the post-operative care provided by the nursing staff inspired confidence. The doctors not only stood on their feet for almost 18 hours during the operation, one of them remained at my relative’s bedside for two days. The procedure they performed was far from routine — in fact it was written about in a medical journal.

When the risk of post-operative infection presented itself, considering he was being operated for what they called endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart valve, they called a highly skilled young infectious disease specialist from another hospital. When a nasty bedsore, resulting from lying unconscious for a number of days, threatened to open a pathway to infection, they wheeled him into the operating theatre one more time and treated it surgically.

Why can’t our politicians see their own travel abroad for medical purposes as evidence of the dire need to improve things at home?

The head surgeon was always available during post-operative care, and every time we talked to him he was up to date with the results of the latest tests and the overall recovery of the patient. The cardiologist seemed to practically live in the hospital.

Any time of day, from early morning to midnight, we could find him in the hospital, tending to patients, whether in the wards or in his office. Hospital staff told us he has been putting in 16-hour workdays for many years now.

But there were problems. First, there were tiny cockroaches in the ICU. Lots of them. They told us since the hospital was located near an open sewage line, there was nothing that could be done. I myself saw the roaches crawling around the bedside table in the ICU, where every item was packed inside small ziplock bags to prevent them from coming into contact with the injections and medicines on the tables. The attendants for each bed would periodically swat the roaches away if any of them tried to climb atop a patient, and they were quite diligent about the task — my relative contracted no infection.

On a couple of occasions I spotted a small rat scurry past, including in the corridor that led directly to the operating theatre. Again I was told the proximity to the open drain was the problem. “We’ve tried everything to eliminate these pests, but nothing works,” the staff told me. A few days after the treatment they’d be back.

One cannot but wonder: in this day and age, is there not a safe way to handle sewage drains so they don’t give rise to a large pest population, particularly when the drain happens to be located near a major hospital?

The doctors and staff at the facility were top-notch, and one could easily entrust the prime minister of the country to their care. If only the prime minister, or his party which heads the province and is in charge of the hospital, could do a little more to ensure that the facility is worthy of the kind of effort the staff puts in every day.

Pakistan’s health infrastructure is in a dismal condition. Heads of state and senior bureaucrats routinely go abroad for treatment, even for simple procedures. While one wishes them well and hopes for their speedy recovery, one cannot help but ask: why can’t these people see their own travel abroad as evidence of the dire need to improve things in their own country? Can they at least ask themselves ‘have I done everything in my power to ensure that those who cannot afford to travel abroad for treatment have the best facilities that our meagre resources can afford’?

The same question arises even more urgently for education. How many children of senior bureaucrats and elected officials study in government schools? Don’t many of them go abroad for higher education? And have they really done everything in their power to ensure that those who cannot go abroad for an education, or to a private school, are still getting the best that our meagre resources can afford?

Basic human decency is a two-way street. One cannot expect it from others if one does not exhibit it first. We should pray for our prime minister’s speedy recovery, but upon his return, we must ask him ‘Sir, what about the rest of us? Where should we go if we need a routine cardiac operation performed?’

The writer is a member of staff.

khurram.husain@gmail.com

Twitter: @khurramhusain

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2016