HYDERABAD: Retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, head of the one-man Supreme Court-appointed commission on water quality in Sindh, was shocked to see uncovered manholes and drains in the Jamshoro branch of the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) during his surprise visit to the healthcare facility on Monday.

Justice Muslim, accompanied by advocate Shahab Usto and chairman of task force formed by the apex court Jamal Mustafa Syed, was going to Larkana from Karachi when he made a brief stopover at LUH and inspected its premises.

“Everything looks in a shambles in the hospital. I am well aware of this facility since I was born in Jamshoro,” he told LUH medical superintendent (MS) Abdul Wahhab Wadhu who had rushed to the hospital from Hyderabad after hearing about the judge’s visit.

He asked where government funds were being spent and was taken aback when he saw uncovered manholes in the wards’ corridor and outer drainage line disposing of human excreta into drains.

The judge gathered information about the hospital’s incinerator and was told that it was being manually operated because it had developed a fault. He asked the staff working on installation of a reverse osmosis (RO) plant in the hospital to expedite the work.

Dr Ghulam Murtaza Arain, a senior research officer at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources who is a member of the task force, told the judge that only one plant supplying 5,000 gallons per day was insufficient for 22 wards of the hospital, which needed more ROs to cater for all needs.

Superintending engineer of works and services Akhtar Dhawach complained of frequent interference in his work while the MS told the judge that he had delegated powers of drawing and disbursing to an officer, Abdul Sattar Jatoi, who managed all works.

He undertook that he would notify that the SE would now be responsible for quality of all kinds of works being executed in the hospital.

The MS disclosed that the hospital had Rs1bn annual budget of which the major chunk of Rs580m went into purchase of medicines and Rs100m was spent on maintenance and repair.

Mr Dhawach assured the judge of executing all works in accordance with required specifications which he could personally check when he visited the hospital again after 10 days.

The judge expressed his displeasure over management of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Science (LUHMS) when he noticed heaps of garbage dumped near Diagnostic and Research Laboratory on the university premises.

He told LUMHS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Bikha Ram that he had great expectations from him but the state of affairs at the hospital was disappointing.

Dr Ram replied that some issues pertained to dual management of this teaching hospital by Sindh government and LUMHS. Electricity supply was a major problem as the hospital needed uninterrupted power supply, he said.

Justice Muslim issued directives to the chief executive officer of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company to provide an express feeder to the university and the hospital to supply uninterrupted power to both the institutions and asked Hesco CEO to appear in person before the commission on March 5.

He also ordered that LUMHS VC should provide four RO plants to LUH Jamshoro branch through Public Health Engineering (PHE) department.

Shahab Usto observed that a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) was needed for all teaching and district hospitals. The SOP should be finalised in consultation with Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), health department and vice chancellors of medical universities and colleges, he said.

He said that Sepa should be primarily responsible for ensuring whether environmental and medical issues were properly addressed in the government-run hospitals.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2018