I recently took my one-year-old daughter suffering from diarrhoea to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. There were two separate lines for men and women outside the entrance to the paediatric emergency section.
It was a pathetic scene watching men and women holding ailing babies in their arms while standing in the line under the shade. They were waiting for their turn to go inside the emergency room where two doctors were examining the patients.
The government should make adequate arrangements to facilitate the parents of ailing children so that they may not have to wait for hours in queues. I saw some children whose condition warranted quick medical treatment, but their parents were not allowed to go inside the emergency room and were made to wait in the queue for their turn.
A precious life could be lost if an ailing child is not treated promptly. The government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is headed by a party that has been at the helm for nine straight years, but it has failed to improve the healthcare delivery system despite talking a lot of health reforms.
The authorities should establish a spacious emergency department meant only for children to provide them timely emergency cover instead of making them wait for hours.
AKHTAR ALI
PESHAWAR
