Murad to write to PM to let Sindh govt run three Karachi hospitals

The Sindh government has said it will approach the federal government for retaining the administrative control of three major hospitals of Karachi — National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH) —so that free-of-charge health services to the people of the province could be continued unhindered.

“I’ll write a letter to the prime minister with the request to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the provincial government to run these three hospitals,” Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Monday while presiding over a meeting to discuss the matter of the three hospitals.

Last week, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said that they were in the process of forming an independent board of governors to run the three health facilities. He added that he had approached the provincial health minister, Dr Azra Pechuho, to seek nominees from the provincial government for the board of governors the federal government was creating to run these facilities.

“I have requested names from her [Dr Azra] too for the boards. Will put proper and non-controversial professionals [in these boards],” Dr Sultan said when asked why the Centre were being blamed for appointing people in the board of governors who were non-Karachiites and who had no experience of running health institutions.

During the meeting on Monday, the CM was told that the federal government had decided to run these three hospitals under the board of governors, to which he remarked that such a move would be contrary to the judgment of the Supreme Court.

Shah maintained that his government had worked day and night to make the three hospitals one of the best facilities in the country. “We have not only enhanced their budgetary provisions but launched new initiatives such as cyberknife at the JPMC, established satellite centres of the NICVD and upgraded the NICH,” he said, adding that the shifting of administrative control of these hospitals from the provincial government to the federal government at this stage would affect their delivery services badly.

The CM directed the Sindh health department to write a letter to the federal government and apprise them of the situation. He added that he would also write a letter to the PM, urging him to enter into an MoU with the Sindh government so that the latter could run these facilities and ensure free-of-charge health facilities to masses.

The meeting was attended by Dr Azra, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Advocate General Salman Talibuddin, Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Law Secretary Dr Mansoor Rizvi and others.