April 19, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1429

KARACHI, April 18: The city district government Karachi is unlikely to get a promised sum of Rs250 million from the provincial government needed for the operation of at least 61 health-care facilities, including hospitals, maternity homes and dispensaries, during the current financial year.

Sources in the city and provincial governments’ health departments said that though the two departments had already furnished the relevant paperwork to the Sindh finance department, a government notification regarding the sanctioned new expenditures and release of funds in question was still awaited.

It was learnt that besides the 61 health-care units of various levels located in Karachi, about 180 other health facilities across the province, which were built and completed over the last few years, could not be made functional, while many remained under-utilized due to the non-availability of funds with the district governments.

Noting that only two months are left to complete the ongoing financial year, an official in the city government said this matter of great importance was not being touched upon perhaps due to the “overall go-slow attitude of the provincial bureaucracy” that prevailed for the last six months or so.

The matter of release of funds and employment and transfers/postings-related matters can attract attention only once the new elected government gets hold of things. But by that time it would be too late in the case of a number of dormant health centres, the official said.

“It is feared the relevant exercise will have to be repeated and the top bosses would have to be pursued again, perhaps in the new fiscal year,” the official added.

The CDGK needs to appoint and post 750 to 900 general physicians and specialists to make the dormant health facilities functional. Since the city government alone cannot meet the burden of staff salaries and other necessities, it had requested the Sindh government about a year back to approve the sanctioned new expenditures (SNE) on the eve of 2007-08 budget.

The Sindh government had announced a special one-time grant of Rs500 million to various administrations in the province, including Rs250 million for the city government of Karachi, in order to enable them to launch their newly constructed or upgraded health institutions.

‘Bureaucratic lethargy’

However, due to what is being labelled as bureaucratic lethargy, like many other districts of the province, the CDGK is also failing to address the issue of the shortage of health-care facilities.

There is one doctor for every 5,000 patients and one paramedic for every 3,000 patients living within the jurisdiction of the city district government, which needs to be improved, particularly in towns like Shah Faisal, Malir, Orangi, Baldia, Gadap, Landhi, Nazimabad, Bin Qasim, Korangi, Jamshed, Site and Keamari, where a large chunk of the population has to suffer in the absence of vital health-care facilities.

The situation in other districts is also not very different and it has perturbed the authorities concerned very much.

“The shortage of doctors in the government hospitals, particularly those in remote and rural areas, has also been a source of concern for the government for long,” said a source in the provincial health department, adding that information and plans had adequately been given to the finance department and some adjustments had also been agreed upon in the matter.

When approached for his views, the secretary of the provincial health department, Malik Asrar Hussain, said he had already requested the Sindh finance department to notify the sanctioned new expenditures so that the neglected or forgotten health facilities could be revived or made fully operational.The CDGK’s EDO Health, Dr A.D. Sajnani, said that had the funds been released in time, the appointments of doctors and paramedical staff could have been finalised by now.

“We have diverted some staff from a few of the already operational facilities to the newly constructed health facilities, but the overall impact was not proving of any purpose,” he said.