KARACHI: City Mayor Wasim Akhtar said on Wednesday the people of the city that generated most of the revenue for the country were without even basic health facilities as hospitals here lacked essential medical equipment, apparatus and medicines.

He said improvement in the health sector was the top priority of the municipal government as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was utilising its funds of other projects under annual development plan for provision of health facilities to the people.

“We have vision and plans to bring about improvement to the health sector, but we don’t have funds,” he said and added that he always spoke of shortage of funds so that people would know how the city was treated by the people at the helm of affairs.

The mayor was speaking to the participants in a ceremony held in connection with opening of a dialysis facility and a morgue in the KMC-run Landhi Medical Complex.

MPAs Hamid-uz-Zafar and Ghulam Jelani, chairman DMC Korangi Nayyar Raza, vice chairman Ahmer Ali, chairperson medical committee Naheed Fatima, Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman, senior director health and medical Dr Beerbal, MS Mohammad Rafiq, UC chairman Hashim Raza and others were also present.

The mayor said that the KMC had financial constraints to the extent that its hospitals did not even have ECG machine costing Rs60,000 only.

He told the participants that the KMC had already invited bids for medicine procurement in hospitals and health facilities run by the municipal utility.

The mayor appreciated K-Electric for providing electricity to Landhi Medical Complex without loadshedding.

He requested the power utility to cooperate with other hospitals too.

Mr Akhtar said that the municipal government wanted to improve hospitals so that people would avail themselves of good medical facilities in their areas.

He said that Landhi and Korangi were important areas where a large number of industrial workers and labourers lived.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2018