KARACHI: Describing the Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC) as an “absolute failure”, representatives of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) have levelled serious allegations against the commission, accusing its officials of hurling threats and harassing doctors and causing violence at health facilities.

They told a press conference held on Friday at the PMA House that the government had appointed SHCC officials “unlawfully”.

“The present status of the SHCC is a mockery of the law. In recent weeks, the SHCC teams raided health facilities in Kunri, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah, tortured the staff deputed there and caused damage to property,” claimed Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro of the PMA-Karachi.

He added that these cases were taken up in writing with the commission but it had not taken action yet.

The association regrets the commission considers it a rival, not a supporter

Abuse and harassment of doctors on behalf of SHCC teams, he said, had become a routine matter while no serious effort was being taken against quackery.

He demanded that the government ensure the commission followed its rules and regulations.

The association also spoke in detail about what they termed the “faulty mechanism” of the SHCC to register healthcare facilities and said it would not work unless the commission created effective awareness about the system and encouraged doctors to get registered with it. The commission, they said, had closed down its online registration system for unknown reasons.

Doubts over registration process

The PMA representatives also presented some SHCC documents at the presser, showing a long list of hakims and homeopaths registered with the commission.

“One wonders why this registration system is more popular among homeopaths and hakims. Also, there is a big question mark over their credentials,” said Dr Mirza Ali Azhar representing PMA-Sindh.

He said that the threatening and derogatory conduct of SHCC raiding teams violated the dignity of practicing health professionals.

He said the association on many occasions had offered its assistance to the commission but regretted that “SHCC looked at PMA as its rival and not as its supporter”.

To a question, he said the association had always highlighted violations in matters pertaining to the commission. This included the meeting held last month to elect two SHCC commissioners.

“The officials violated the SHCC Act which calls for holding a vote once nomination papers were received. The other violation was making two absentee members of the search committee part of the election process,” Dr Azhar said, adding that he protested in writing to the health minister on this matter.

He called upon the government to notify six divisional representatives of the PMA and that the divisional representatives of the association should be on board before any inspection of health facilities was carried out.

Earlier, the association briefed about the major tasks the commission was supposed to perform. This included monitoring operation of healthcare facilities, granting accreditation to healthcare service providers who meet the prescribed criteria and standards and investigating cases of alleged medical negligence and taking appropriate steps to eliminate quackery.

“Right now, the commission is not even moving in the direction that could help it achieve these objectives,” said Dr Azhar.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2020