LARKANA: Admini­strative activities and most of the healthcare facilities at the 1,550-bed Chandka Medical College Hospital Complex — offering a host of medical and pathological lab tests at Shaikh Zayed Hospital for Women, CMC Children Hospital, CMC Teaching Hospital and Casualty Department as well — have been badly affected since July 17, due to the absence of a finance director.

The post is lying vacant since Kazim Bhutto completed his three-year term on that day and a new finance director could not be appointed as yet.

No other management officer is authorised to exercise the drawing and disbursement powers of finance director and, therefore, no money transactions to run the day-to-day affairs of the entire complex is possible.

Thousands of patients are suffering due to the lapse as this complex, being one of a few major tertiary care hospitals in Sindh, caters to the healthcare requirements of people coming from the entire Larkana division and many other areas.

Thousands of patients suffer as all sorts of payments, purchases, maintenance and pathological tests remain stopped since end of finance director’s term on July 7

The CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Amjad Bijarani serves as the administrator of almost all the healthcare facilities offered at the complex. He also does not have the drawing and disbursing authority, hence helpless.

The situation has turned so critical that even blood tests are not being done at the pathology laboratory, according to a professor of orthopaedics. “We are compelled to tell patients, on surgery list, or their attendants to buy the required items from outside,” he regretfully disclosed.

“When an indent is sent to the hospital’s store, often the required medicines are not available; and the staff at the store appear reluctant to even mark ‘NA’ (not available) on the indent book,” he shared.

‘No routine tests done in last six weeks’

People privy to the pathology laboratory told this reporter that for one and a half months, routine tests are not being carried out and even urine tests were not conducted in the hospital. The situation in all five pathological laboratories is identical.

About the X-rays, they said that the department was facing a shortage of X-ray plates whereas the medico-legal X-rays were being done outside the hospital.

‘New DF to come soon’

CMCH Medical Superintendent, when contacted, said that the high-ups concerned had already been informed of the situation, and expressed his hope that a finance director might be posted “very soon”. He disclosed that the MRI section at the CMCH had been dysfunctional since 2016 in CMCH.

Sources in the hospital said that the management was relying on ‘local purchases’ on its own with the hope that issues would be resolved once a new finance director was appointed.

MS Dr Bijarani appeared worried about another issue, pointing out: “We are arranging many of the required items through local purchases; and if the coming finance director does not endorse these bills, then who would disburse the amounts?”

Benazir varsity VC

Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nusrat Shah, who heads Hospital Management Committee (HMC), said that her committee was not authorised or entrusted to appoint a finance director. The university’s selection board had conducted interviews on the pattern of the ‘search committee’ for the purpose, and recommended three names to the chief minister. It is the prerogative of the CM to appoint a finance director, she said, adding that the matter was still pending a decision.

Paramedics’ woes

Munwar Mangi, a former general secretary of Pakistan Paramedical Staff Association, CMCH chapter, appeared worried about the plight of retiring employees, whose retirement documents also require signature of finance director for approval of their pension. Roughly 100 such cases, as well as of death claims, are pending action, he said.

PMA message

Dr Fazal Qadir Khoso, the spokesman for the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), has shared a video message to express his concern. The drawing and disbursement-related matters have come to a halt, he lamented.

“Patients are suffering due to the delay in appointing a finance director,” he observed, and appealed to the CM, health minister and health secretary to fill the vacancy at the earliest.

Prof Dr Sikandar Mughal, the President-elect of the Larkana PMA told Dawn that in principle, the DDO powers should rest with the MS to avoid a situation that currently prevails at the hospital. Government should also discontinue appointing non-medical professional as finance director, he suggested.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2026