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| July 24, 2007 | Tuesday | Rajab 08, 1428 |
KARACHI: Disagreement over site delays trauma centre project
KARACHI, July 23: The fate an ambitious trauma centre project, approved by the prime minister a year and a half ago, is hanging in the balance since officials of the provincial health department and the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) management have been unable to agree upon a site.
The Rs237.5 million so far allotted to the project lie unused while sources blame the delay on poor homework on part of the health department and the CHK management, which failed to take stakeholders’ concerns into account.
“Meetings held over the past four months have proved inconclusive,” the source informed Dawn. “Options that were initially considered favourable, such as locating the centre outside the city near the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases or in the administration block of the Services Hospital, were rejected in subsequent meetings. Another meeting at is due on Wednesday and will be presided over by the health minister.”
Other invitees include the health secretary, the chairman of the CHK board of governors, the CHK medical superintendent (MS), the MS Services Hospital and the police surgeon. The in-charges in the HIV/AIDS lab, the blood transfusion cell and the CHK chemical examiner have also been invited, though they are not apparently concerned with the debate over the trauma centre. “Perhaps they have been called to discuss some other issues,” commented the source.
The meeting’s participants are to discuss the possibility of shifting the CHK neurosurgery and ophthalmology departments to make room for the trauma centre. This option was earlier floated in February this year but was “temporarily” rejected when strong opposition was voiced by Dr Junaid Ashraf, who heads the neurosurgery department, and Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Shaikh and Dr Adrees Adhi, in charge of the ophthalmology departments Units 1 and 2 respectively. The doctors argued that the CHK does not have the space to shift the wards of these departments and that such a move, even for a short period, would endanger patients’ lives.
Furthermore, they pointed out, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan would no longer recognise these departments as postgraduate training centres since a shift would force the closure of services, facilities and academic activities.
The brainchild of former CHK medical superintendent Prof M. Saeed Quraishy, the trauma centre was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council a year and a half ago. The three-year project hit the headlines when it was reported that Services Hospital would be razed to establish the trauma centre.
After facing stiff opposition from all quarters, the officials concerned reverted to the original plan of building the centre on Chand Bibi Road, where the 7,222 square yards earmarked for the project include the current eye and neurosurgery departments of the CHK, and quarters that house city government employees and the hospital’ paramedical staff.
Health department officials claim that no detailed study report was carried out for the Rs1.4 billion project which is to be completed on a 50:50 cost sharing basis between the federal and provincial governments. The former allocated Rs50 million in 2006 and Rs37.5 million this year in this regard, while the government of Sindh allocated Rs150 million this year.
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