‘Injured persons’ immediate medical aid bill’ lands in Sindh Assembly

KARACHI: A bill was introduced in the Sindh Assembly seeking to provide medical aid and treatment to any injured person before completion of medico-legal formalities, ARY News reported Friday.

Titled, ‘Sindh Injured Persons’ Compulsory Medical Treatment (Amal Umer) Bill’, the bill was prepared after the killing of 10-year-old Amal Umer, during a police shootout with robbers in Defence area in August last year, who later died due to the alleged negligence of the hospital she was taken to.

Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh, Barrister Murtaza Wahab has expressed his hope that new draft legislation on providing health facilities to injured persons at once by all public and private hospitals would be tabled in the Sindh Assembly next week and said that new legislation would go a long way providing treatment to injured persons without completing other formalities and this would save human lives.

“No hospital or doctor shall demand any payment for providing compulsory medical treatment or other such medical assistance from victim, if he or she is unable to make payment. The cost of compulsory medical treatment shall be borne by the government,” the bill states, adding that the injured persons will be shifted to a government hospital immediately after their condition stabilises. “If he or she chooses, they may remain in the private hospital subject to paying the charges of the hospital,” one of the clauses of the bill reads.

The bill further adds: “It shall be mandatory for all hospitals or any institution (enjoying status of a hospital) to have fully equipped and functional ambulances in case the injured person is to be shifted to another hospital,” the bill states, adding, “No police officer or any other officer of law enforcement agency shall interfere with the administrating of compulsory treatment or seek or interrogate an injured person while he or she is receiving compulsory medical treatment in a hospital.”