KARACHI, June 18: The chief minister of Sindh, while inaugurating the Landhi Medical Complex on Wednesday, approved its sanctioned new expenditure (SNE) which will burden the treasury by millions of rupees every year. Doctors and paramedical staff are going to be appointed under the SNE.

The SNE has been approved after setting aside a ban on employment which does not allow the induction of staff in more than 200 other healthcare centres of Sindh which remain underutilized due to the non-availability of doctors and paramedical personnel.

At the time of its opening, the complex has 50 beds. It is equipped with an ultrasound machine, an X-Ray machine, a dental unit and a chemical analyser. The operation theatres are also properly equipped.

A hand-out issued by the Sindh government quotes the Sindh chief minister as saying at the inauguration ceremony that a children’s hospital was being opened in North Karachi for which Rs2.5 million has been released initially. He added that permission for a 50-bed hospital in New Karachi has been given.

While it began to rain during the chief minister’s speech, he continued to speak and said that permission for buying equipment and medicines worth Rs57.59 billion has been given. He announced that a medico-legal department would be opened at the Medical Complex.

He also announced regularization of several Katchi abadis in Landhi in which the Sindhis and the Baluchis have been living for centuries. He added that since Karachi is a mini-Pakistan all communities would get their rights here.

Sindh health secretary Aashiq Memon said that the building for the hospital had been vacated by the rangers 8-10 days ago.

The provincial minister for planning and development, Shoaib Bokhari, provincial adviser on health, Noman Sehgal, and Dr Farooq Sattar also spoke on the occasion.

The complex will stay open round the clock, Dr Jamaluddin Shaikh who was involved in the project, told Dawn just before the opening ceremony. Twenty doctors have been deputed from other healthcare centres and programmes specially to make it operational.

The complex is ultimately going to be upgraded to a 750-bed facility. The authorities plan to make it a model health centre, said Dr Jamaluddin.