Opinion and Debate: Corridor consultations: Should this practice be discouraged?

In Pakistan, despite the Health Ministry s vows to abolish the practice of getting medicines without prescription from qualified medical practitioners, the system of Corridor consultation is very much in vogue. In the absence of strong and corruption-free judiciary, this practice can never be stopped. Our health system is also not flawless in a multiple ways, especially the issues of vigilance on practices, medical auditing, periodic performance evaluation, medical corruption and nonaccountability to serious medical negligence. No wonder, we do not have a system of protective medical insurance against any medical negligence as it in the western world. The simple reason is that we do not need one. Ironically, the safety of patients remains in jeopardy. These problems are not only restricted to poorly functioning government hospitals, but some well known private institutions were also found to be implicated in serious complications as a result of patient negligence.