Theft of Medicines from Govt Hospitals Torments Patients

KARACHI -- Theft of medicines from the government-run hospitals has become a lucrative source of extra income for corrupt hospital staff, while poor patients are at the receiving end, as they have to either purchase drugs from private medical stores or simply discontinue their treatment. The government at federal, provincial and local government level spend huge budgetary allocations for the purchase of medicines every year for the government-run hospitals; however, sadly only a small fraction of them are actually delivered to the patients, while the lion's share is sold by the corrupt officials, especially paramedics, to the private medical stores, from where they are sold to public.