Editorial
Poor healthcare service for children
Exercise strict oversight on the facilities
A survey of Save the Children informs that children aged between 12 and 18 do not receive proper treatment from public hospitals and health complexes. The survey, conducted on 466 children of 64 districts, shows that about 69 per cent of those could barely access healthcare facilities. In addition, many doctors were allegedly found to have been busy with personal talks with colleagues or pharmaceutical representatives while many others were found absent from work. In addition to murky environment, the survey mentions many other minor problems which do not allow the children to get the necessary treatment.
Most alarming, however, is the fact that the underprivileged children, especially slum and street children, remain largely outside the range of public hospitals and health complexes. One reason behind this is that all public hospitals provide treatment in exchange for money, however meager the amount. Another reason is that as street children they are often looked down upon. It must be stressed that these children are also entitled to basic healthcare services as much as the better-off ones and the onus is on the government to ensure that they are not left out of its scope.
Today's children are the future leaders, and a nation cannot prosper without capable leadership. In order to ensure that, the state will have to guarantee that our children have access to all the basic healthcare facilities, even more so because this is their fundamental right as guaranteed by our constitution as well as by the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It is, therefore, incumbent upon the government to monitor that the doctors in these centers are doing their duty professionally. As an alternative, the government can open up a complaint cell where neglected children may lodge complaints against truant or indifferent doctors.
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