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HYDERABAD: The Sindh chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has called for a third-party evaluation to assess performance of those non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to which government hospitals were outsourced under public-private partnership venture.
Speaking at a news conference at the local press club on Monday, Sindh PMA general secretary Dr Pir Manzoor, Dr Abid Kaimkhani, Dr Gulzar Jumani and Dr Ishtiaq urged the provincial government to ensure provision of anti-rabies vaccine and hepatitis medicines to all government hospitals forthwith.
They said that if the demands were not met within the next 15 days, the Sindh PMA would launch a protest drive.
They claimed that the Sindh government had failed to provide quality health facilities to people. They alleged that the health department with Rs130 billion budget at its disposal was plagued with corruption and maladministration.
Pir Manzoor said that half of November had passed but the tender process for supply of medicines to hospitals had not been finalised to ensure purchase of 85pc of medicine, whereas no decision was being taken for availability of 15pc remaining medicines. This was bound to push poor people into serious trouble, he said.
The PMA leaders said that Sindh government had already privatised 70pc of hospitals and government was not evaluating performance of the parties that were given control of the health facilities. “This [venture] is the only public-private partnership deal where private parties do not invest a single rupee and earn millions while utilising government’s assets, manpower and resources,” they pointed out.
They named some NGOs which had failed to provide ARV despite having been allotted budgetary allocations amounting to billions of rupees.
They PMA leaders expressed their concern over the loss of 30 lives in dog-bite cases and the government’s indifference over the situation. They said that due to corruption in health department, Sindh had become the centre of diseases like hepatitis but rulers remained least concerned.
They said that despite passage of three months after budget, people were not able to get medicines. They said that there was a shortage of doctors and paramedics while fuel remained unavailable for ambulances and generators. They said the health department witnessed frequent changes at the level of secretary because there was no clear policy. A secretary hardly served for seven to eight months in this department, they said, and noted that changes were reported in the department right from secretary to office superintendent.
They also claimed that project directors of vertical (federally-funded) programmes were being appointed without merit and recently a cardiologist was appointed the head of Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) whereas the anti-polio programme was being headed by a bureaucrat who was facing corruption charges in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference.
The PMA leaders demanded that all kinds of facilities including CT scan machines, digital x-ray, ultrasound and ophthalmology equipment be provided at taluka- and district-level hospitals. They also demanded an end to privatisation of health facilities.
They said that project directors of vertical programmes must be appointed on a merit basis. Health secretary’s term should be for three years so that he could run the department properly with clear policies, they added.
Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2019
