LARKANA: Qambar-Shahdadkot district and sessions judge took notice of shortage and unavailability of medicines at district headquarters hospital on Thursday and summoned secretary of health to appear in court on Nov 16 along with a detailed report on why budget and schedule of new expenditure (SNE) for the hospital had not been sanctioned.

The judge Zahid Hussain Maitlo, who had taken the action over a report of the hospital’s medical superintendent, had sent a letter to the secretary of health over growing public complaints about the shortage of medicines in the hospital.

The letter, a copy of which was available with Dawn, said that Qambar-Shahdadkot district was one of the worst hit districts by torrential rains and floods which ultimately caused spread of multiple diseases and infections among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and general public owing to stagnant water.

The IDPs and general public were braving the hard times but unfortunately they were not being provided medicines by the hospital, said the letter.

The hospital’s MS said in a report submitted to the judge that the hospital had been granted the status of district headquarters facility in 2021, 16 years after Qambar-Shahdadkot was carved out of Larkana and made a new district in 2005.

Since then no separate budget and SNE had been sanctioned for the hospital, he said, adding the district headquarters hospital was being run with the budget and SNE for a taluka level hospital.

In the light of the MS’s report, the judge summoned the secretary to appear in the court and explain why the budget and SNE for the hospital had not been sanctioned.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2022