Blog l The hospital of the founder of Pakistan

The hospital is a behemoth of 1,400 beds, which occupies an entire city block, and is named after Jinnah , the founder of Pakistan, with which baptizes all that is considered important or noteworthy in this country. And the hospital certainly is. It serves the largest city of Pakistan, Karachi, located in the south and with 20 million inhabitants . However, if Jinnah raised his head, rather than the hospital may be called otherwise. Delving there confused: looks more like a prison than a hospital. There are large doors on each floor grates and a policeman stands guard to not strain anyone who is not sick. "It's for security," said a doctor.Karachi is a city so violent that the hospital also suffers from it. "The bullet wounds are common. Every day we get three, four, sometimes more. Depends" answers the Emergency Registry responsible vaguely. In the corridors there are all kinds of crap, until dried blood clots in the corners, as if someone had vomited blood and had stayed there, splashing the walls . Electric cables protrude dangerously, some ceilings are sagging and the elevators seem to have destroyed a gang of vandals . But despite this, "work", says an old man with a walker, waiting patiently for one of them down. In hospital rooms, the situation improves. There is so much dirt, but the beds are one a few inches of each other. "The service is good, right," answered the majority of patients when asked about the conditions of the clinic. medical care is free. What more could you ask? Only Ghulam Mustafa, whose elderly father lying on a bed, dares to say small mouth that "the hospital is not very clean", and complains of the "slow service". His father suffers severe abdominal pain and loses consciousness."We've been told you can not do more tests until after the election" , Mustafa lamented on Wednesday, referring to parliamentary elections that were held on Saturday, while his father wept bitterly for not being able to know what happens until you know who the new prime minister.

Corruption

"Yes, corruption". Dr. Shershah Syed, who for six years has been secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, answers without hesitation when asked if there is anything in the Pakistani health care system that works. Jinnah Hospital depended before the federal government . With the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of the late Benazir Bhutto , in power, was transferred to the provincial government, but that, according to Dr. Syed, nothing changed. "The politicians who are in charge of Health have no heart, and so there is nothing to do," he says. The country's health data, collected in the 2013 annual report of the Pakistan Medical Association, put the willies. A total of 400,000 children die annually in its first year, 30,000 women die in childbirth, Pakistan is the sixth country in the world with more cases of tuberculosis, has 25 million smokers who consume 36,000 million cigarettes a year, and mouth cancer cases have soared. There are many more statistics. "Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where polio still exists , even though every year makes a major vaccination campaign ", he cites another doctor, Sayed Siddiqqi. "Iran and China eradicated polio in a few months. Why not here?" Asks. According to the doctor, the existence of polio interested, because that guarantees the arrival of international funds, in theory, eliminate it. What is done after the money is another matter.

On Monday, the father of Ghulam Mustafa may finally undergo medical tests to find out what happens. The new prime minister of Pakistan is already clear: Nawaz Sharif, the conservative Muslim League. What is not known is whether we will end corruption and improve once the country's health system.