KARACHI: City Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Sunday said Rs5,097 million was allocated in the fiscal year 2020-21 budget to provide better health and medical facilities to the people.

“Coronavirus testing facility at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital has increased the people’s confidence in Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. We are trying to expand facilities at the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases, Karachi Institute of Kidney Diseases, Landhi Medical Complex, Sobhraj Maternity Hospital and other hospitals under administrative control of the KMC to provide free of cost medical facilities to poor people,” he said.

While speaking at a meeting on medical facilities at KMC hospitals, the mayor said that the people of Karachi were left alone as hospitals were overcrowded during the pandemic.

The mayor said the common people could not afford high fees of private hospitals.

He said that separate ward for Covid-19 patients had been established at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital having facilities of 18 ventilators and ICUs.

Mr Akhtar said that a filter clinic had also been established at the Landhi Cardiac Emergency Centre catering to the residents of Korangi and Landhi. “Just like the global situation, Karachiites are also facing unprecedented circumstances as the people have been hit hard by the coronavirus. Business activities have come to a halt and many people went jobless that increased depression and anxiety among them,” he added while stressing the need for facing the pandemic as a nation.

The mayor said that many countries had already defeated Covid-19 but the situation in Pakistan was still not ideal.

He asked director of medical services Dr Beerbal Gainani to make functional KMC hospitals round the clock and ensure provision of all required equipment to doctors and paramedical staff.

The mayor directed that doctors’ presence should be ensured while ordering strict action against absent doctors and paramedics. “The entire nation is facing towards doctors in this situation,” he said.

Mr Akhtar said that the provision of better health facilities to the people was among their priority and they had to serve the masses in their limited resources. “Lethargy in this regard will not be tolerated,” he warned.

The mayor said that the people had posed confidence in Covid-19 testing facility at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

He asked the National Disaster Management Authority to provide the city’s municipal administration with more testing kits so that more people could be tested.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2020