Health sector to be top priority in Sindh’s next budget, says Nasir Hussain Shah

Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said on Monday that the major focus of the provincial government in the upcoming budget will be on the health sector.

Shah said that in view of the outbreak of COVID-19, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had also asked Sindh’s chief minister to accord priority to the health sector in the next budget.

The information minister said that although the provincial government had done a lot of work in the health sector in the past, there was a greater need to focus on this sector in the aftermath of novel coronavirus spread.

Listing the Sindh government’s achievements as regards the improvement of the health sector, he cited the examples of upgrading all the basic health units and district health units, expanding the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) to other districts and introducing CyberKnife technology to treat cancer patients.

Shah said that besides these achievements, the provincial government is also constantly supporting the Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation (SIUT), where people not only from Sindh but also from all over the country come for treatment.

He said the provincial government always tries to provide the best of the facilities to the poor in the health sector. He also said it is wrong to say the Sindh government focuses only on major cities in terms of providing facilities in the health sector.

The minister said this is not the case at all because branches of the NICVD and the SIUT have been opened in other districts of the province besides Karachi. Giving further examples, he said that at the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences, which is located in Gambat, procedures for liver transplant are being performed.

He also said he is not claiming that everything is fine with regard to health facilities in the rural areas of Sindh, adding that things are very different now and there has been a lot of improvement in health facilities in those parts of the province.

Shah said the Sindh government is of the view that improving health facilities in the rural areas will reduce the pressure on the health facilities in major cities. He said this is the reason why the provincial government is paying so much attention to improving health facilities in the rural areas, adding that people now have access to the best treatment facilities in their neighbourhoods.

He also said the recruitment process of doctors is also under way with the same thinking that they should be recruited on the condition that they will serve at least for three years in the rural areas.

The minister said the doctors who have been recruited on contractual basis to look after the patients of novel coronavirus will be posted at health facilities in the rural areas of Sindh after evaluating their performances.

Giving further examples of Sindh’s health facilities, he said that not only a major cancer hospital is being built in Sukkur but just like in Karachi, a major branch of the SIUT is also being constructed there.

He also said that these two major health facilities that will benefit millions of people of the province are being fully funded by the Government of Sindh. Shah said these two facilities are being managed by the country’s eminent Dr Adibul Hassan Rizvi, adding that the Sindh government is trying to provide the best healthcare facilities to every person of the province close to their home. He also said that any shortcomings in the health sector of the province that come to light during the coronavirus pandemic will be rectified as soon as possible.