September 24, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 23, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 23: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that the government has decided to equip the government hospitals and healthcare facilities across the province with standard machines and trained manpower on a priority basis.

He was talking to doctors and newsmen at the Civil Hospital, Karachi, where he inaugurated a renovated coronary care unit on Tuesday. Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmad, Sindh Health Secretary Mohammad Hussain Syed, and CHK Medical Superintendent Dr Saeed Kureshi were also present.

The chief minister said the government was focusing on social sector development and had planned to extend health and education facilities to the population in the urban and rural areas at their doorstep.

On the recommendation of the Sindh health minister, machines and relevant diagnostic facilities of quality were being provided in phases to the teaching hospitals and existing or newly built healthcare facilities, while the recruitment of doctors and paramedical staff had also been initiated so that hospitals and basic health units lacking manpower could be made fully functional and enabled to cater to the ailing community in the province.

After being briefed by senior officials on various ongoing projects at the CHK, Mr Shah assured them of full support of the Sindh government.

He also announced that the CHK’s accident and emergency centre an ancillary services complex, a project that was initiated by the federal government and the Sindh government about three and a half years back and is yet to be seen executed on ground, would be named after Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

Coming on to the CCU that has been renovated and added with modern diagnostic and treatment gadgets through the financial support of the government and philanthropists, the chief minister said it was a marvellous addition to the CHK for the benefit of the poor and affected people of Sindh, particularly in a situation when heart diseases were on the rise and that cost high to the people.

“You are giving relief to the people, which is a matter of pleasure for the government as well,” he said to the doctors, adding that the government had allocated a maximum budget for the health sector.

The CM referred to his last visit to the CHK and said he was shocked to see the horrible conditions of the CHK’s emergency and accident section a few weeks back, but was pleased to see that positive changes were taking place there.

CHK MS Dr Kureshi informed the chief minister that the ground-breaking of the much-awaited trauma centre project of the hospital would take place in a month or so.

According to Prof Dr Khalida Soomro, head of the CHK’s Cardiology Department, about 800 men and women suffering from heart problems were provided with the angiography facility at the department last year, while the number of such patients was likely to go up to 1,000 this year.

“On average, seven to nine angiography and one angioplasty procedures are undertaken daily at the CHK and in such a situation there had been a dire need to have a truly dedicated post-procedure recovery and rehabilitation section at the department,” she added.

She said the new 12-bed facility would now attract government employees, having coronary artery diseases, for angioplasty interventions, which would save a substantial amount of money the Sindh government spent on the treatment of such patients in the private sector at a higher cost every year.

“We are now in a position to retain the patients undergoing the coronary angioplasty and stenting due to the upgrade and refurbishment of the CCU, she said, urging the Sindh government to provide her department with another angioplasty machine since the existing one was more than 20 years old and was highly overburdened.

It cost the CHK Rs20 million acquired from the government and philanthropists for the renovation and provisions of latest equipment and machines for its cardiology department.

The department, like many other departments, was still faced with the human resource problem, said Dr Soomro.