Karachi’s three hospitals unlikely to be in Centre’s control for another six months

The federal government is unlikely to assume the control of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) before the end of the current financial year, federal health authorities said on Friday.

They added that the Centre had decided to approve the budgetary requirements of the three major health facilities of the city for the next fiscal year.

A meeting was held in this regard at the Governor House on Friday morning during which the executive directors of the JPMC, NICVD and NICH briefed Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Federal Health Secretary Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik and Federal Health Director General (DG) Dr Asad Hafeez on the functioning, patient flow, problems and budgetary requirements of the hospitals.

The federal special assistant, secretary and health DG had arrived in Karachi to oversee the transfer of the three hospitals from the Sindh government to the Centre, following the latter’s assurance to the Supreme Court that it would run these health facilities.

JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali briefed Dr Mirza and his team about the number of patients treated at the JPMC in its emergency ward, OPDs and other wards. She informed them that the number of patients coming to the JPMC was on the rise with each passing day as people from the entire country were visiting the health facility to seek high-quality treatment.

Dr Jamali said the JPMC would require at least Rs8.3 billion in the next fiscal year to properly run the health facility, keeping in view the growing number of patients, and requirement of funds for new equipment, medicines, salaries and fresh hiring of medical and paramedical staff. She added that no promotions of doctors and staff was also a serious issue being faced by the institute.

“Doctors, professors and other staff have not been promoted to next grades since 2011, which is a serious issue. The health facility is also short of staff,” she told the federal health authorities and added that the JPMC staff would not accept any other institution’s hegemony over them.

NICH Director Prof Jamal Raza briefed the federal team on the services performed at the NICH, its assets, number of employees, vacant posts and number of patients.

He said the institute would be in need of over Rs4 billion for its proper functioning as children not only from other cities of Sindh but also from Balochistan were brought to the NICH.

According to federal health officials, NICVD Executive Director Prof Nadeem Qamar also attended the meeting but sought at least two weeks for a detailed presentation on the institute’s budgetary requirements to the federal health officials, saying that limited time was given to them for the preparation of a detailed presentation.

Officials said the heads of JPMC, NICVD and NICH were requested to provide a summary of their briefings so that their issues and financial requirements could be placed before the federal cabinet for approval. They, however, added that the transfers of the administrative and financial control of these hospitals to the federal government was unlikely before the end of current financial year.

A senior member of the federal health team told The News that although they had sought six weeks from the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the preparation of a working paper on the modalities of transfers of these health facilities from Sindh to the Centre but due to financial constraints, the Centre was unlikely to assume their control before June 2020.

“At the moment, the provincial government has made the financial allocation to run these hospitals while the federal government did not allocate any budget to run them. It seems that the provincial control of these health facilities would continue till the next federal budget,” the official observed.

Visits to hospitals

The federal health secretary and health DG also visited various health facilities in the city.

During their visit to the National Research Institute of Fertility Care (NRIFC), the secretary said the federal government had decided to resume funding of the fertility care institute to carry out research on contraceptives and study their side-effects.

“The federal government has resumed the funding of NRIFC Karachi for the current year and it would also get the funds to continue research and tests in the future,” Dr Malik told The News.

Established in 1962, the NRIFC was shifted from Saddar to Clifton in 1990 for want of space. Located in Clifton, the purpose-built health facility on 4,000 square yards has 17 rooms, including a clinical trial room, contraceptive testing lab, biochemistry lab, radioactive lab and chemical storage space.

The federal health secretary said the NRIFC was established to conduct research on reproductive health with special emphasis on matters related to family planning. He added that keeping in view the importance of research in these areas, the federal government had decided to resume the funding of the fertility care institute.

When it was founded, the NRIFC was a federal research body. However, after the devolution of the health ministry to the provinces in the 18th constitutional amendment, the Sindh government claimed that the institute had come under its control but the federal government insisted that the institute fell in its domain. Ironically, despite claiming the possession of the institute, both the governments did not pay a single penny to it for the last several years to run its affairs.

Later, the federal secretary and DG also visited the emergencies of the JPMC, NICH and NICVD and other health facilities in Karachi where they monitored their service delivery, functioning, flow of patients and problems being faced by the staff and patients.

Dr Malik told The News that he visited the emergencies of JPMC, NICH and NICVD as well as the Railway Hospital in Karachi and sought details of the flow of patients and facilities available there along with the issues in service delivery.