Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in Islamabad established in 1966 with the aim to offer healthcare services to people of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Currently, it’s a 500 bed hospital offering services to 2.5 million patients a year. Despite its work load and dependency of poor people on public hospitals, the dire condition at Polyclinic Hospital has made it unable to provide baseline laboratory testing including blood CP, liver function test, renal function test and serum electrolytes testing to its patients due to lack of funding. Hospital receives patients who are usually protocol conscious Government Officers or poor people dependant on public health services. The destitute among them suffer more. They have to get their Lab tests from private laboratories charging them hundreds of times more than the actual cost of the tests. Government Officers get the compensation for the payment of private lab tests but the general population is not entitled to any such benefit. Responsibility lies with the government but who to blame when the representatives take the public mandate as a privilege rather than responsibility to deliver.

The solution to improve the poor system of public hospitals is to run them through public- private partnership. It is evident from the 77 years of governance that our government is unable to provide the public with basic health facilities. Our health care system needs some pragmatic reforms with the help of the private sector. It is our suggestion to the Ministry of Health to look into our healthcare system and make necessary reforms.