HYDERABAD, June 15: Sindh Auqaf, Zakat and Ushr and Religious Affairs Minister Dr Irfan Gul Magsi has taken up the matter of handing over of the Hyderabad Civil Hospital to a medical university with the adviser to the chief minister on health, Noman Saigal, this correspondent has learnt.

A well-placed source said both the minister and the adviser, decided to resist any move to surrender the Civil Hospital to the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS).

The source said before the Sindh cabinet meeting, held last week, Dr Magsi called on Mr Saigal at his office in Karachi to discuss the issue.

Mr Saigal assured the minister that such attempts would be foiled and the Sindh government would provide essential facilities at the CH.

The meeting followed press reports which suggested that a lobby was engaged in a campaign to get the CH under the administrative control of the LUMHS.

The minister told the adviser that the CH offered treatment to patients on cheaper rates, making it possible for poor people to avail health facilities. He said the LUMHS charged 100 to 150 per cent more for different tests when compared to the civil hospital. He said the CH’s pathology laboratory charged for only 14 of around 85 tests it conducted.

The minister said the civil hospital had recently offered its land to the diagnostic and research laboratory (DRL) of the LUMHS notwithstanding the fact that the laboratory neither contributed to the CH in its welfare fund nor it offered subsidy to indoor patients of the hospital. He said the DRL should offer subsidy to the CH’s indoor patients and contribute to the welfare fund of the hospital for using its premises.

The source said Dr Magsi and Mr Saigal also discussed the issue of the pathology laboratory which the hospital administration had reportedly decided to close down and run only the DRL.

The source said the adviser had assured Dr Magsi that the CH would not be given under the control of the LUMHS.

There are reports that efforts are underway to get the CH under the control of the LUMHS.

According to the registrar of the LUMHS, the civil hospital’s name has already been changed to the Liaquat University Hospital through a notification of the Sindh health department.