HYDERABAD, Sept 18: The president, Pakistan Medical Association, Sindh Chapter, Dr Noor Mohammad Memon, has expressed satisfaction that at least someone from the Sindh Cabinet has shown interest on the Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, and expressed concern over its ownership status, substandard health care, absence of some important specialities and above all private practice by specialists.

In a statement faxed to Dawn on Thursday, he said as far as improvement and enhancement of health care facilities and addition of new specialities like invasive cardiology, kidney transplantation, geriatric ward are concerned, they have been ignored and delayed for a long time, which are the urgent need of the present time.

He said after the establishment of the CCU with the lone efforts of the late Prof A. Karim Abbasi and the wholehearted support of the Deewan family, his desire to add invasive cardiology was put in cold storage.

He said if private sector hospitals, which do not have their own specialists and experts, are providing invasive cardiology and kidney transplant services through the employees of government hospitals, there is no reason why these experts cannot render the same services in their parent institutions.

The PMA president pointed out that with enhancement in life expectancy, the geriatric services in at least government hospitals has become an urgent need of the hour.

About the ownership of Liaquat University Hospital (LUH), Dr Memon said that the best solution lies in dividing it in two parts.

He suggested that the city portion should be made a major Civil Hospital under the control of the Sindh government without reducing the budget to achieve some improvement in treatment standards and the adjacent Muslim hostel be vacated from the Rangers and added to the Civil Hospital for the construction of a trauma centre and casualty department.

He said the Jamshoro Hospital and Eye Hospital should be handed over to the Liaquat Medical University.

He said that this would solve the problem of dual control over the hospital to solve the problems of coordination, mismanagement and absence of teaching faculty members and specialists as well as the staff.

He said this will also enhance the medical care facilities at both the places, especially at Jamshoro where the senior doctors pay short casual visits and the juniors leave the place after 1:30pm.

Dr Memon said that the Jamshoro Hospital wears a deserted look in the evenings and becomes a haunted place at night at the mercy of ward boys and midwives.

He said this will also discourage the specialists to visit private hospitals during duty hours.

About private practice, the PMA president said that it was the right of experts and specialists. He, however, said private practice can be and should be regulated according to the rules of the government service which have been ignored by both the government and specialists.

He said this has created a free for all situation where specialists give more time to private hospitals.