Mayor upset over no COVID-19 support from Sindh, Centre

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar said on Saturday that he had written many letters to the federal and Sindh governments asking them to provide assistance to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to combat COVID-19 but to no avail.

Holding a meeting with medical superintendents of public hospitals and chief executive officers of private hospitals, Akhtar said the city’s local government has effective doctors, paramedics and infrastructure with 58 ventilators, but all of them are not being utilised well by the Centre and provincial government.

He said that a large number of Karachiites visit the 14 hospitals under the administrative control of the KMC so they want to expand COVID-19 testing facility at these hospitals.

The meeting that ran for over two hours deliberated on how to control the coronavirus pandemic. The mayor said that the municipal body has neither testing kits nor the funds to buy them.

Dr Abdul Bari of the Indus Hospital promised to provide testing kits and personal protection equipment to the KMC, while Dr Asim Hussain of the Ziauddin Hospitals and Dr Salman Fareedi of the Liaquat National Hospital promised technical assistance regarding ICUs and laboratories.

The mayor said 2,500 to 3,000 tests are being conducted by the Sindh government right now and the number can be increased to 6,000 if the hospitals under the KMC’s administrative control are provided this facility.

“We have manpower, laboratories and ICUs, but all we need is technical assistance so that the people can be served in a more efficient manner.”

He said that three centres are being established at the Landhi Cardiac Emergency Centre, the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) and the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases’ new building with the assistance of private hospitals. Critically ill patients will be looked after in the ICUs of ASH, he added.

The mayor said the COVID-19 testing facility will be free at these centres. He regretted that had the provincial government devised a joint strategy, the situation might have been different. He said that now they would approach the private sector to serve the people.

“From the very first day it was our desire to serve the masses but we couldn’t do it efficiently owing to the shortage of funds, but we have an opportunity to serve the infected.”

The meeting was also attended by Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Syed Saifur Rehman, Mamji Hospital’s Dr Farooq Mamji, Ashfaq Memorial Hospital’s Dr Asif, Darul Sehat Hospital’s Dr Ali Farhan Chishti, Patel Hospital’s Dr Mazhar, KMC Medical Services Senior Director Dr Salma Kausar and Coordination Senior Director Masood Alam.