LARKANA, Nov 9: Four major hospitals of Sindh, the Civil Hospital Karachi, Chandka Medical College Hospital Larkana, People’s Medical College Nawabshah and the Liquat University of Medical Science Hospital Jamshoro, will have full-fledged facilities of CT scan and MRI.

Senator Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro told Dawn in the Cadet College Larkana on Thursday that the advanced medical equipment would be installed in the four hospitals within five month.

“I wrote to the president and the prime minister about the dire need of machines” Dr Soomro said.

He said that the matter was taken up at the Senate’s functional committee, which met after the positive response from the prime minister was received on September 21.

He said that senior parliamentarian Anwar Bhindar chaired the meeting which was attended among others by the federal health minister, federal state minister for finance, federal health secretary, director-general of the Sindh health services and he himself.

The senator said that at the outset the federal government had refused to finance the plan due to heavy cost.

But he (Dr Soomro) was being the mover had pressed the representatives for not ignoring Sindh that really needed CT scan and MRI machines facilities.

He said that the CMCH Larkana, PMCH Nawabshah and LUMS hospital Jamshoro that catering the day today’s medical needs of the interior Sindh, parts of Balochistan and Punjab, had no such facilitities.

In road accidents and other emergencies the poor had to travel to Karachi and bear have expenses.

Finally, they signed a document agreeing to provide matching grant to the provincial government, the Senator said and added the share that stands at Rs29 croers had been released to the Sindh government for completing the process of purchase and installation of four CT scan and MRI machines in the four teaching hospitals.

He had also negotiated with federal health officials for supplying uninterrupted vaccines to treating the cases of hepatitis in Sindh.

At present, the federal government was running 61 centres catering the demand of hepatitis patients and of them 11 are functioning in Sindh.

The senator said that the treatment cost for one patient was Rs6,000 and added that health officials had assured for continuing the assistance.

The health officials told overcoming the shortage of anti-snake venom (ASV) and anti-rabbies vaccine (ARV) in Sindh, the senator said.