07 March 2005	Monday	25 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, March 6: Surgeries at Sindh Government Services Hospital are suspended, as its main operation theatre could not start functioning for over two months due to delay in completion of its renovation work.

Owing to the prevalent situation at the hospital, many people are suffering as their operations could not be done.

A senior official of the hospital said that the main operation theatre was closed about two and half months ago for renovation, while a new eye operation theatre was also to be constructed adjacent to the existing theatres.

"The work has not been finalized yet, as renovation is not being done on daily basis. It often stops every three-four days and contractor is also absent for last several days," he added.

About four to six patients used to undergo surgeries every day before closure of the main operation theatre. Tuesdays and Fridays were reserved for surgical patients, Mondays and Thursdays for gynae cases and Wednesdays for patients of ENT and eye," he added.

He said that patients were now being referred to Civil Hospital Karachi, while many others who need surgery were on waiting list.

"On many occasions, patients had misbehaved with surgeons due to the delay in their surgeries. The male medical ward is also closed for a couple of months and medical patients are being kept at surgical ward," he said.

Meanwhile, majority of hospital officials have expressed strong reservations on the quality of ongoing development work in the wards and residential floors.

"The reason behind low quality work is that more than 10 contractors have been involved in the work. Major amounts of payments have already been made to some contractors before completion of their work," a senior official added.

He said that the development work was supposed to be done by Circle-I of the PWD, as the hospital falls in this circle, but for unknown reasons, responsibilities had been put on shoulders of Circle-III.

The medical superintendent of Sindh Government Services Hospital, Dr Sohrab Hakeem, when contacted, admitted that he also felt some hurdles in development and renovation works. "I have informed the Additional Secretary Development Sindh about the prevailing situation and a meeting has also been convened in the second week of March, in which all matters will be discussed in detail," he added.-PPI