LARKANA: Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar on Wednesday transferred the medical superintendent of Khairpur Civil Hospital, placed its director finance under suspension, and ordered an audit of repair works of Sukkur and Guddu barrages by third party.

Accompanied by his principal secretary Hassan Naqvi and health secretary Dr Mansoor Rizvi, the CM paid a surprise visit to the hospital and took round of different wards, labs and the radiology department, and interacted with the patients present there.

In the emergency facility, female and male patients were lying on beds without bedsheets. There was no segregation by male and female.

There was no oxygen and monitors, and even nebulisers were out of order and lying on floor with multiple layers of dust rusting them.

Answering a question, the MS told the CM that there were no lady doctors on duty in the emergency and there was only one lady doctor who was ‘on call’.

The answer enraged the CM and he warned the MS to behave like a doctor and administrator of the hospital. “How can you allow such a mess, mismanagement, unprofessional attitude in a hospital where more than 3,000 patients visit regularly,” he said and added the hospital was a 550-bedded facility, but it was being run like a dispensary.

Justice Baqar visited the radiology facility and inspected the dark room, where X-ray films were processed. It was also in a pathetic and dirty condition.

The CM checked the laboratory of the hospital which had good equipment, but some of the articles were out of order and no effort was taken to fix them.

He also visited the pharmacy where no appropriate record of the medicines being given to patients was maintained. A private pharmacy was operating on the hospital premises against which the CM directed the health secretary to get it sealed.

The interim CM visited the hospital kitchen where he was told that food was being prepared for 350 patients. As a matter of fact, the kitchen was like an abandoned room where cooking had not been made for long.

The MS and director finance failed to show the expenditures of the hospital incurred during the last few months and they had no record of the doctors present on duty and leave.

Precarious condition of historic school

The CM also visited the historic Government Naz Secondary High School established in 1906. The condition of the school building was precarious.

The CM noticed that the enrolment was over 900 but only 70 per cent students were present. The lab and the library had no electric lights and even there was no stock of books. The washrooms were choked and electric water coolers out of order.

The CM expressed displeasure and directed the deputy commissioner to restore the glories of the historic school established over an area of 48 acres.

GIMS visit

He also visited the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and inspected its requirements, inventories, patients’ aid system and its overall expenditures.

The CM directed the GIMS director to reconcile all its accounts with the finance and health department so that its Rs2 billion deficit could be controlled.

Sukkur Barrage

Before going to Khairpur, the caretaker CM visited Sukkur Barrage where its chief engineer briefed him. During the briefing, he ordered for an audit of the repair works of Sukkur and Guddu barrages by third party.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2023