Sir: Once you visit a public hospital, I am sure you will be forced to pray that God never brings you to the hospital as a patient. The lack of facilities and shortages of staff cause a lot of trouble for patients. It is for these reasons that doctors are compelled to discharge patients as soon as their operations or surgeries are over. Also patients and other people keep spitting, sneezing and gargling in public, which increases the chances of communicable diseases transferring from one person to another. These hospitals have little resources or technology, which decreases the number of possible treatments. The ultimate sufferers are those who cannot afford expensive treatment and for whom public hospitals are the only hope. ANIQA RAHATKarachi