Speaking on ``Patients' rights and privileges,'' here on Sunday evening, Jethmalani said though the country had produced fine doctors, many hospitals were actually slaughter houses where people went to be killed, not cured. ``I do not blame the countrymen for this lapse,'' the Union Minister said, but corruption, economic mismanagement, and non-application of funds in the right areas are the causes for the sorry state of affairs.

Expressing alarm that having crossed 75, he was in imminent danger of falling into doctors' hands, Jethmalani described the patient's right to complete information about his treatment, its risks, the alternatives available and their comparative evaluation, as the most significant right.

``Patients have the right to prompt treatment, and mustnot be kept waiting more than 15 minutes after the appointment time at private clinics or hospitals,'' he said, adding that this right was hardest to enforce in India, where the rich always had precedence over the poor for treatment, due to the sheer inadequacy of hospitals. ``Describing the charter of patients rights enforced internationally,'' the Union Minister explained that patients had a right to be believed by their doctor, while it was also their duty to disclose honestly all their symptoms and records.

The right to confidentiality, dignity and responsiveness, were other rights he mentioned at the Tilak Smarak Mandir, as chief guest to release the 21st issue of Shatayushi. Jethmalani also presented the Shatayushi awards for excellence in medical service to Dr Shivmoorti Khandalkar, for medical education to Dr Mehroo Mehta, and for outstanding medical student to Tapan Rawat.

Declaring at the outset that it was ``the special affection for the people of Pune,'' that had brought him here, thoughnearly two hours late, he congratulated the Shatayushi Foundation for their selfless work, but also created ripples in the audience when he said to Dr Mehroo Mehta that he wanted a definite explanation about why she had chosen to mention Sigmund Freud and sex, in her speech.

Dr Ashok Mahshoor, chest physician at the J S Medical and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, gave a presentation and lecture on respiratory problems and their treatment, in which he blamed pollution and smoking as the main causes of the increasing incidences and severity of respiratory problems, especially among children and the elderly.