KARACHI, Sept 19: The city government is spending more than Rs 13.5 billion on health and education services for Karachi. However, there is a need for an improvement in these sectors to cater to the needs of the city.

Nazim Naimatullah Khan said this while inaugurating the oncology unit and the intensive care unit of the Sobhraj Maternity Hospital. He stated that the most unfortunate thing was that sub-standard health and education services were being provided to the people.

Naimatullah Khan highlighted the efforts of the city government for improving the health facilities in Karachi, and spoke about the establishment of Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases in the old KMDC building in F.B.Area.

He announced that senior medical superintendents of major hospitals of the city government will be given the powers of the EDOs.

He praised MS, Dr. Shabeen Naz, and lauded the services of the SMH.

He said that the SMH was an asset for Karachiites.

Dr. Shabeen Naz said that the SMH was established in 1928 by Chetumal Sobhraj in memory of his wife Kishendevi Sobhraj as a mother and child care centre.

Over the period of time, it has developed to be a tertiary-care teaching hospital, recognized by the Royal College of Gynae and Obstetrics and the CPSP.

She highlighted that SMH was the only hospital of the city government to have 24-hour emergency obstetrical services, besides other facilities, including infertility clinic, family planning clinic, menopause clinic, adolescent reproductive health counselling clinic and the oncology clinic.

Speaking on the occasion, EDO health Dr. Ali Nawaz Sheikh said that the department was facing a shortage of 1,000 doctors and paramedics which need to be filled.

However, despite this shortage, all health units were functioning efficiently, he added.

The EDO announced that the first city blood bank would soon be established in SMH which would provide blood to all units of the city government.

He informed that the government would soon launch a mid-wives training programme under which all the licensed mid-wives would be permitted to administer deliveries at home without any fear.

This move would eventually reduce deliveries by untrained traditional birth attendants, Dr Sheikh added.—PPI