KARACHI: The Sindh government has appointed 4,376 doctors and made a requisition to the Sindh Public Service Commission for appointment of 2,000 more doctors.

This emerged during a meeting at the CM House on Friday which reviewed appointments of new doctors, procurement of medicines, donor projects and new opportunities of public-private partnership.

The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and attended by chief secretary Rizwan Memon, P&D Board chairman, principal secretary to CM Sohail Rajput and various other officials.

The chief minister said the standard of health services was improving in the province and vowed to improve them further.

Earlier, health secretary Fazal Pechuho informed Mr Shah that 4,376 new doctors, both male and female, had been appointed in the province.

On that, the chief minister directed Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro to send another requisition to the SPSC for recruitment of 2,000 more doctors.

The meeting was informed that hospitals were purchasing 15 per cent of the medicines locally and 85 per cent through tenders.

Shah floats idea of testing teachers every five years

“The hospitals are allowed to purchase 15 per cent of the medicines and related items from their budget as per Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules.

“The centralised procurement of medicines is made through tenders by a centralised procurement committee,” the meeting was told.

The chief minister directed the health department to contact owners and heads of pharmaceutical companies to get concessional rates.

“I have credible information that they (pharmaceutical companies) are supplying medicines to other provinces on lower rates,” he said.

The meeting was informed that the Indus Hospital was running the Badin district hospital, 61 rural health centres and six taluka headquarter hospitals in Badin.

“Aman Foundation is operating ambulance services in Thatta and Sujawal while Medical Emergency Resilience Foundation is also playing an active part in the two districts.”

The meeting was further informed that HANDS is operating hospitals and health centres in Bin Qasim, Gadap and Ibrahim Hyderi.

The meeting also approved Rs120 million to equip the Syed Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical Sciences (SASIMS) in Sehwan with MRI and CT Scan facilities and to construct a wall around the building.

Test teachers

The chief minister also presided over a meeting called to review progress of the province in the education sector and discussed the matter of teachers who passed NTS tests and were protesting for regularisation of their jobs.

The meeting was attended by Education Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, chief secretary, principal secretary to CM, Karachi Commissioner Aijaz Ali Khan, Law Secretary Iftikhar Shahelwani and senior officers from the education and finance departments.

Mr Shah proposed that all teachers working in the province be tested every five years by a third party.

“In case of failure, they will be separated from the teaching profession because we need most up-to-date teachers as we cannot risk the future of your youth.

“We are paying huge salaries to teachers yet they come on road every other day on one pretext or another.

“We cannot compromise on quality, therefore, we want most qualified teachers.

“There is lack on will on the part of teachers and they seem least interested in their profession.

“We are also working to provide professional training to teachers. There should be a teacher training academy of high standard where special training programmes be designed and launched,” Mr Shah vowed.

He was told that there were 15,649 teachers who passed the NTS test.

The chief secretary informed him that the teachers had been appointed on three-year contract and now they wanted to be regularised on completion of their contracts.

The chief minister directed the education minister and Karachi commissioner to meet the teachers and discuss the issue.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2017