Where are our rights as citizens? Wednesday, 20 April 2011 01:09

Why don’t citizens enjoy priority in their homeland? We as citizens do not get treatment in our country if we fall ill and it pains us because we have to go to private clinics. It is shocking that foreigners are getting treated at the expense of the State and we’re treating ourselves.

t is but true that medication is getting costlier by the day thanks to private hospitals that charge exorbitant fees. My only question here is how long will the citizens visit private clinics? For example, the rate for eye treatment in one of the specialised centers is QR 300 and the medication charges are not less than QR100. This is an average rate for one person. May Allah shower his mercy on the householder as children’s diseases are increasing by the day.

We know the condition of state hospitals as health centers take cases of eye, skin, nose, ear after prior appointment. Sometimes they include these cases within their departments or refer them to out-patient clinics and we know the situation of appointments.

The health situation is miserable, especially when we go to private clinics and pay from our pockets. On the other hand expatriates are treated through the health insurance at the expense of their institutions. I am personally pleased because I do not want any citizen or resident who requires treatment and does not find it. Our deprivation as citizens does not mean that we resent giving it to others. This is a treatment and do not see anyone discomfort in himself or his family, but where is our place to express it? Where are our rights as citizens?

Some citizens carry health insurance, but a certain class who are working in some institutions are benefited, thank Allah for that. This is their right, but what about other people? Unfortunately, health centers are not equipped with the necessary specialist treatment and the private clinics do not guarantee good treatment. We often pay to these clinics but we neither get the treatment nor preserve the money.

Oh Minister of Health, the system of appointments in the specialised clinics in Hamad needs a complete management in order to follow-up and correct the same. A patient who has eye, ear or skin problems will have to wait to be transferred from the health center to out-patient clinic in Hamad or he will have to wait for his scheduled appointment which takes a month. Definitely, he will not take any further risk of exposing himself to the complications but will visit a private clinic for further treatment.

A patient spends five hundred riyals on average on detection and medicine in a country that says it is treating its citizens for free and ensures their right for treatment. In addition to that he finds that the doctor is not a professional but is a trader and wants the patient to visit him repeatedly. Later he is told to visit another doctor since the diagnosis is not effective. In the bargain the patient has to spend for the treatment visiting another doctor. Who is responsible for the exposure of citizens to fraud?

Why in the health centers there is no clinic specialised in eye, skin, teeth, nose, throat and children’s treatment, so the patients can easily get access without appointment, especially in urgent cases?

Why don’t citizens enjoy priority in their homeland? We as citizens do not find treatment in our country if we fall ill and it pains us because we have to go to private clinics. It is shocking that foreigners are getting treated at the expense of the State and we’re treating ourselves.

The rights enjoyed by Qatar’s citizens is soon beginning to shrink and this is not a good sign to which the state is committed.

We hope that you will take a proper step to restore the natural right of its citizens for treatment and stop encouraging private clinics where the citizen is forced to visit when he does not find any treatment in government clinics. I personally feel that these private clinics are simply here to make brisk business without bothering about a person’s health.

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