CM announces health city in Gambat as Rs207bn allocated for health sector

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday declared Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jeelani Institute of Medical Sciences in Gambat the first medical city in Sindh to promote medical tourism in the province saying that people from across the world would come there to avail state-of-the-art medical facilities.

“Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jeelani Institute as the first medical city in Sindh will consist of a cluster of hospitals with multiple specialties along with allied state-of-the-art health facilities and an education centre catering to all modern-day health and medicine treatment and education needs. A university board has been constituted under the chair of the chief secretary to finalise the modalities,” Shah said while presenting his budget speech in the Sindh Assembly.

The chief minister maintained that the total outlay of the health budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 was Rs206.98 billion, covering primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare level services, preventive interventions as well as other communicable and non-communicable diseases. This year, the health sector budget was 14 per cent higher in comparison to Rs181.22 billion during the fiscal year 2021-22, he said.

He told the provincial lawmakers that the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation had been provided a grant of Rs10 billion as against Rs7.12 billion last year with a net percentage increase of 40 per cent.

Similarly, Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jeelani Institute of Medical Sciences had been given Rs6 billion as against Rs4 billion last year with a net percentage increase of 50 per cent, Shah added. He informed that Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre had been provided funds amounting to Rs594 million for the purchase and installation of a robotic surgical system while Rs3.5 billion had been kept for procurement of the expanded programme on immunisation EPI vaccines as against the existing Rs2 billion grant.

The chief minister said Rs12.539 billion had been kept for the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and its 10 satellite centres in Sindh, while Rs1.1 billion had been kept for the 50-bed Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and 100-bed hospital in the Eid Gah area.

He said Rs125 million had been kept for treatment of 500 patients through Gamma Knife treatment at Dow University of Health Sciences, Rs 200 million grant was being provided to the Kidney Centre, Karachi, and Rs11.481 billion to the Peoples Primary Health Care Initiative (PPHI) against the existing Rs8.226 billion.

The grant to Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Institute Trauma Centre at the Civil Centre, Karachi had been increased to Rs2.4 billion from Rs2 billion and Rs500 million had been given to the institute as a one-time grant for the purchase of machinery and equipment.

The chief minister said Rs290 million had been provided as a grant in aid to 10 Thalassemia centres as against Rs260 million last year, while a grant to 11 dialysis centres in the province had been increased to of Rs155 million from last year’s Rs130 million.