KARACHI: Sindh Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah has said that public sector hospitals in the province are treating nearly 10,000 emergency patients on a daily basis and there is an urgent need to upgrade their emergency wards.

Chairing a meeting on enhancing the quality and efficiency of emergency healthcare services in the province, the chief secretary “emphasised that the vision of Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah is to implement comprehensive reforms in the health sector by introducing people-centric interventions”.

He highlighted that these reforms aimed to improve the accessibility and efficiency of emergency healthcare services, ensuring that the growing demand for such services was met effectively across the province.

During the meeting, the CS presented findings from a detailed data collection exercise conducted across major hospitals in Karachi.

According to the data, the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) handles approximately 2,000 patients daily, with a monthly total of around 60,000 patients; the Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital receives 1,800 patients daily, with 54,000 patients each month; the Sindh Government Lyari General Hospital and the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Institute of Trauma also report high patient volumes daily.

Acknowledging the overwhelming patient numbers, the chief secretary stressed the urgency of upgrading emergency wards across all major hospitals in Sindh, including district and tehsil hospitals, to cope with the increasing demand.

He assured the hospital administrations that the Sindh government would provide necessary support in terms of human and financial resources and procurement of medical equipment to ensure the success of these upgrades.

The hospital administrators welcomed this initiative and shared their recommendations based on the specific needs of their respective facilities.

The CS directed them to submit detailed plans outlining the steps necessary for upgrading the emergency wards, which would be reviewed for swift approval to ensure a rapid and effective transformation of emergency healthcare services across Sindh.

The planned upgrades to the emergency wards are expected to significantly enhance the province’s healthcare capacity.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2024