KARACHI, May 26: The Radio Diagnostics and Imaging Department of Civil Hospital, Karachi was formally inaugurated on Wednesday after it was upgraded with the support of the Poor Patients' Aid Society and Dow College Graduates (Dowiites) 1979 batch.
The facility will support hundreds of needy patients visiting the hospital everyday, and requiring relevant tests as well as medical care and treatment. The Sindh Health Minister, Naim Ishtiaq was expected to inaugurate the said department, but he could not make it.
However, in a message read on his behalf, the minister reiterated that the government despite its limited resources was committed to improving health care facilities and did appreciate the assistance extended by philanthropists.
Ishtiaq commended the contribution being made by the Patients Welfare Association (PWA), Khadim-e-Insaniyat and other NGOs working at CHK. Justice (Retd) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, president, Poor Patients' Aid Society (PPAS) CHK on the occasion, terming the Dowiites as a dedicated and public- spirited batch of doctors, lauded them for their generous investment in upgrading the much needed facility at one of the major hospitals of the province, catering to patients both from Sindh and Balochistan.
Siddiqui giving details of the project said that a decision in this regard was taken in 2003 by the PPAS CHK. To carry the decision further, a committee was constituted, under the guidance of Prof Mahmood Razi of Karachi X-Rays, to suggest ways and means for upgrading the existing facilities in the radiology block.
In the light of the said committee's recommendations, the PPAS approved the renovation of the radiology block and earmarked a sum of Rs2 million for the purpose. While, in the meantime the batch of 1979 Dowiites joined hands with PPAS and offered to donate equipment.
The PPAS till 2002 was managing the disbursement of federal zakat along with its own collected zakat and donations. However, since the government's decision to disburse zakat through the hospital management, the organisation started to collect zakat and donations on its own for the benefits of poor patients.
The PPAS was stated to have spent about Rs7.5 million during 2001-02 in supporting radiology, biochemistry, patient's care facilities and institutional improvement through donations, grants and donor participation.
In the current year, it had yet spent Rs1.3 million for providing medicines to poor Muslim patients using privately collected zakat and donations, the PPAS president said, mentioning that this was besides the material support provided to the radiology and ultrasound department and the central lab of CHK.
Justice (Retd) Said-uz-Zaman Siddiqui mentioned that of a total sum of Rs640 million allocated for the very hospital under the provincial budget 2003-04, Rs516.8 million were spent on salaries, Rs37.9 million on utilities, Rs10.5 million on consumables, Rs4.2 million for repairs and maintenance, Rs2.6 million on uniforms and liveries, Rs5.5 million on diet, ultimately leaving only a paltry sum of Rs60.7 million for medicines.
But even of this very amount, he added that 25 per cent of the same could be utilised through local purchases, while the remaining had to be routed through the II Depot, therefore, creating a perennial shortage of medicines in the hospital, the PPAS president elaborated.
He further mentioned with regret that the budgetary allocations held no provision for replacement of worn-out machines or those which might develop faults, though it should be a continuous process in a health facility of this size and magnitude. - APP
