By building satellite clinics, the current government is making every effort to bring healthcare services to every citizen, especially those who live in remote and difficult-to-reach places. However, the government’s expectations are not always met by the quality of care given in some government-run clinics and healthcare facilities. When our premier is passionate enough to build high-quality healthcare facilities, those entrusted with the task are unable to exercise sound judgment, take initiative, and carry out their responsibilities. Some employees, including physicians, entirely disregard their primary duty to provide service.

Allegations are there that many doctors remain absent for a long time when they are transferred or posted in rural areas. Even an observation by the Department of Health found such a bleak picture. According to them, despite the numerous steps, the government is not succeeding in guaranteeing the presence of physicians and officials in state-run hospitals. An average of 46% of physicians and other staff members remain absent from their workplaces every day, letting patients endure suffering and compel them to visit private hospitals.

To ensure doctors’ presence in their workstations, digital attendance machines were set up in government-run hospitals, allowing the hospital authorities to view the list of absent doctors and staff and to take action. However, digital attendance machines are allegedly not widely used in hospitals, and those machines are out of order in many hospitals. Nevertheless, what makes the situation worse is, in many cases, no action is taken against the people found absent from hospitals.

Doctors’ absence from hospitals means the citizens are deprived of one of the five basic rights. So the state must ensure that people’s rights will not be violated because of some unethical physicians or staffers. To guarantee it, strict oversight is required. The leaders of connected institutions and the administrative branch of the health department ought to be more stringent in this situation. Those who neglect their tasks ought to face legal consequences.

The attention needs to be given not only to establishing infrastructure but also to addressing the loopholes in the systems that are creating barriers to better service quality. We have no option but to enhance the capacity of the health sector to provide healthcare facilities to all. It should be the topmost priority that we transform this sector in line with our national ambition to become a developed nation.