Medical maltreatment.

THE cases of mismanagement and mistreatment at hospitals generally go unreported. The patients and their families are either forced to remain quiet by hospital administrations, or are unaware about how and where to have a complaint registered.

I recently witnessed a case of mismanagement in a reputable hospital of Karachi. A boy was rushed to the emergency department, complaining of extreme pain which looked like a case of appendicitis. However, before he could be checked by a doctor, he was shifted to a hospital ward where he was kept on pain-killers till the relevant could become 'available'. The boy spent a whole night in excruciating pain because the doctor became...