The Sindh High Court directed the health secretary and other health officials to file comments on a petition asking that vacant posts should be filled and adequate medical facilities be provided at the Civil Hospital Shikarpur.
The petitioner, Shahab Usto, submitted that several victims of the Shikarpur Imambargah blast had to be shifted to hospitals in Sukkur and Larkana a couple of years ago due to a lack of proper medical facilities and specialised doctors at the Civil Hospital Shikarpur, adding that many lives could have been saved had adequate facilities been available at that hospital.
He maintained that many of the injured were shifted to hospital in rickshaws and police mobiles as there was no ambulance available in the city. Usto further submitted that the medical facilities available were not enough to cater to the needs of around one million population of the city, and several posts for specialised doctors and other staff were lying vacant despite an annual budget allocation of Rs22.3 million.
The court was asked to direct the government to fill in the positions and order an inquiry into why the posts of senior doctors and specialised surgeons at the hospital remained vacant. The health department had filed a report before the court mentioning that the posts of 79 surgeons and doctors had been lying vacant for the last couple of years.
The court took exception to the situation and directed the health department to take measures to fill the vacant posts in the hospital and to ensure appointments of doctors through transfers till the vacant posts were fulfilled.
