HYDERABAD, March 23: Sindh Health Minister Shabbir Ahmad Qaimkhani has admitted that there is a shortage of staff in the health department and hoped that vacancies will be filled after lifting of ban on recruitment. He was talking to attendants of patients and later to journalists during his visit to the Hyderabad Civil Hospital on Wednesday. Hospital medical superintendent Dr Khalid Qureshi, Sindh health services director-general Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi, Latifabad Taluka Nazim Sabir Qaimkhani accompanied him.

The minister inspected a generator installed in the hospital. He went around various wards of the hospital and enquired after the health of patients.

Defending formation of the board of governors for improvement of tertiary hospitals in Sindh, he regretted that doctors were not ready to serve in rural areas.

He said the non-development budget of the health department would be increased to Rs5.409 billion in the next fiscal year.

Attendants of patients complained to the minister about non-availability of drugs in the hospital.

The minister told them that the medicines’ budget was insufficient and efforts were being made to increase it by 23 per cent in the next fiscal year.

Responding to journalists’ queries in the hospital’s conference room, he said that the board of governors was for betterment of the hospital’s functioning and it would not lead to financial burden.

About any fresh inquiry in the Shahzadi Shahida Sultana case on the demand of affected doctors, he said: “We are basically concerned with the aggrieved family whether it is satisfied with the findings of the inquiry. I had asked the family whether to send professors from Karachi for the inquiry but it had refused and expressed confidence in the committee.”

He said the incident was of grave nature and it could not be condoned. He said the health department had written to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council for cancelling registration of doctors found guilty of negligence in the Shahzadi case. He said no doctor had been reinstated in service.

The minister said that on the pattern of Punjab, incentives would be provided to doctors serving in rural areas of Sindh and in this connection, the health department was entering into a partnership with the Sindh Rural Support Programme for which a summary had been moved.

Under the programme, he said, doctors and their spouses would be offered jobs in rural areas with interest-free loans and handsome salaries. He said they would be allowed to continue their private practice in the evening.

He said around 1,500 posts of doctors and 3,000 of other cadres were to be filled in the health department.