Being a practising pathologist, I feel the need to highlight malpractices and lack of medical ethics at a so-called private, ‘prestigious’ cancer hospital in Lahore. My father is a known case of hepato-cellular carcinoma and has been currently getting treatment under the care of a leading oncologist at a private hospital in Karachi. As the aforementioned hospital in Lahore claims to be Pakistan’s leading cancer hospital, I wanted to have a second opinion on the treatment my father is getting.
The hospital concerned has a rather lengthy email procedure for taking an appointment. We followed that. But to my astonishment, every time I emailed them to get an appointment, I was told that the oncologists there had refused to give any opinion about my father’s case.
This is totally absurd and strange because seeking a second opinion is nothing but a patient’s right. Medical ethics demand that doctors must give a valid reason for their refusal to give an opinion about a patient’s illness.
Furthermore, the hospital concerned has this ridiculous policy of not forwarding a case to any other doctor if one doctor has refused to give his/her opinion even without a legitimate reason. There is no response on repeated complaints; rather, now I have been advised to look for any other hospital. My question is: if a cancer patient is supposed to look for a doctor somewhere else, what role does the cancer hospital in Lahore play in this country? What is it there for? Somebody needs to answer.
DR KIRAN JABEEN
KARACHI
Medical ethics
