After Nishwa's death.

Byline: Dr Zeshan Khan

The Hippocratic Oath requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. These include the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence.

'I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm'. A statement, which certainly encompasses the rights of a patient in critical condition fighting for his or her life.

Minor girl Nishwa, who was administered a wrong injection at Karachi's Darul Sehat Hospital, has passed away a week ago and hospital is fined five lac only.

There is no working regulatory framework that governs the health sector in Pakistan. Where markets are incomplete (no doctors for the old) and have large information asymmetries (where it is not clear if what is being prescribed is in the patient's best interest), regulation becomes very important. Otherwise, the temptation to take patients for a ride becomes too much. Even if some doctors and hospitals do not indulge in unethical or illegal practices, it becomes impossible to differentiate between these and the less scrupulous ones. Word of mouth is not enough to make clear distinctions. But there is more to it than that. When each specialist is visited, they order a panel of tests to be done before they will even start talking of treatment.

Hospitalisation is sometimes the only option left if you want a team of doctors to examine the patient holistically. But even that is not easy. Getting admitted into a private hospital is costly and even there you are placed under the care of a particular doctor. It may not be easy to get other specialists to come and visit.

More importantly, even if they do, they still diagnose and prescribe in isolation. There is no primary doctor who coordinates with other specialists or looks at issues of medicinal interactions, the effects of one treatment on another, and so on. It comes down to the patient himself/herself or to the family of the patient to coordinate between doctors. But they have no way of knowing medicinal or treatment interactions.

There are too many cases in Pakistan that one hears of where mistakes have been made by doctors and care providers like more about the lack of an effective regulatory structure that should have been created for this sector.

Our Judicial institutions must also quick to dispense justice which will allow for a remedy...