KARACHI, March 22: The Civil Hospital, Karachi, is perhaps the only public sector hospital in the province where patients are being charged a fee, though nominal, for disposal of hospital waste.

All out-door patients have to pay one rupee as a fee for disposal of hospital waste.

This system was introduced about two years back by the CHK administration as a local arrangement to generate funds for hospital waste management, one of the staff member of OPD told.

The patients are issued a one-rupee token at the time of registration at different sections of OPD daily.

The number of OPD sections is about 15 including Surgical, Skin, Eye, ENT, Paediatrics, Cardiology, Orthopaedic, Medicine, Paediatric Surgery, Neurology, Urology, Gynaecology etc. and the number of patients visiting daily to these OPD sections is estimated to be around four thousand. Thus the hospital administration earns about Rs4,000 daily.

The HAM fee was charged along with registration fee (Parched Fee) of Rs2 from the patients but since the government abolished the Parched Fee system last year, now the patients are charged only one rupee through a token.

The sanitation staff of the CHK collects hospital waste in polythene bags and later burns it in incinerators.

The CHK administration has also imposed User Charges on the patients for ultra-sound, X-ray and other services and facilities being provided to them.

This, however, has decreased the number of OPD visitors, a Parchee clerk told adding that earlier the number of patients visiting OPD was around 5,000 to 6,000.

Health secretary Khalid Latif Chaudhry, when contacted, appreciated this system and said, “It is not bad to manage hospital waste charging one rupee from the patients.”—PPI