KARACHI: Promised kidney centre for workers not yet operational
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, May 1: A 50-bed kidney centre has yet to become operational despite the fact that promises of the much-needed health facility for the city’s working class was made about 10 years ago on May Day.
The then government had promised that kidney centres would be established in the provincial capitals and Islamabad for provision of diagnostic and dialysis facilities to workers, as most of them suffered from various kidney conditions, especially stone formation.
A heath official associated with the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (Sessi) said his institution had been unable to treat all kidney patients at its hospitals.
Under the social security scheme, he said, there were around 325,000 secured workers with 1,625,000 dependents who were given specialised medical care at the Sessi hospitals.
Although the building had become ready three or four years back, the kidney centre is yet to be made functional.
“Almost every month we hear that the centre is being made functional in a couple of weeks,” said some workers in Landhi area, where the building is located.
They urged the government to do the needful before the equipment became rusty.
Out of the five promised kidney centres, one at Lahore and another at Quetta have been made functional. The Quetta kidney centre is run by a private management.
It is learnt that the recurring expenditures, including the staff salaries, of the Karachi kidney centre will be borne by the Workers Welfare Fund, Islamabad, for at least two years.
The decision about withholding the centre or handing it over to the Sindh government or to the private sector would be made two years after the centre had started working, said a source privy to the goings-on in the kidney centre.
Relevant quarters attribute the inordinate delay in the commissioning of the project to bureaucratic inefficiency, uneven flow of funds and some improper tendering for the procurement of equipment.
The Workers Welfare Fund was originally tasked to make the centre, located near District Jail, Landhi, operational by June 2000.
After a lot of correspondence, the posts of specialists, technical hands and paramedical and administrative staffs were cleared by the federal government, following which recruitments were supposed to be finalised in February 2006. However, things did not go as they had been planned and only 12 to 15 personnel, including one medical superintendent, had been selected who were yet to assume duties, said a source.
A visit to the centre showed that various equipment and laboratories as well as wards had been put in place at a cost of Rs150 million with the objective of undertaking diagnosis, dialysis, surgery, lithotripsy, intensive care and relevant tests. These facilities can be run only by experts, who have yet to join duties. Once the centre is operational, it is likely that about 40 to 50 patients will be given renal dialysis treatment everyday in addition to OPD facilities and consultations.
Kidney Centre Project Director Dr A. Haseeb Qureshi, a senior doctor employed by Sessi, said the project had great employment opportunities. Since the WWF had agreed to allocate funds for payment of salaries and allowances to doctors and other staff in its 2007-08 budget, recruitment process had once again been initiated, he said.
According to Dr Qureshi, the second phase of recruitment for which ads have already been placed in newspapers will commence with the interviews of candidates on May 10.
“We hope to finalise the appointment of about 150 medical and paramedical staff by the end of May,” he said, adding that tentatively the kidney centre would be made functional in the first week of June.
About the purchase of equipments, he said 90 per cent of equipment had been procured and their installation was in progress. Twenty dialysis machines, lithotripters-CR, ultrasound machines, motorised-belt for ICU, ventilators and monitors had been commissioned.
The 50-bed centre with general and private wards have a complete laundry unit on its premises. All workers registered with Sessi and the Workers Welfare Sindh along with their dependents will be treated there free of charge.
The annual expenditure to run the kidney centre is estimated at Rs85 million. However, if the Sindh government or Sessi did not agree to provide the recurring budget, the feasibility of the centre could be assessed again after two years and it might be run on a no-profit-no-loss basis, the sources said.
