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KARACHI, Nov 21: Sindh Caretaker Minister for Health Fouzia Lari has said the government may send the doctors, posted in Karachi hospitals from the interior of Sindh, back to their areas in order to overcome the shortage of doctors in rural areas.
She was talking to newsmen following her first visit as minister to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where she was briefed by Medical Superintendent Dr Kaleem Butt about the working and problems of the hospital, on Wednesday.
Ms Lari said although limited time was at her disposal as a minister her priority would be to address the health problems of children and mothers, particularly in the interior of Sindh where many health facilities were without doctors, specialists and paramedics.
She said people were compelled to leave their native areas to get medical treatment in the metropolis as doctors were not available to them at their place. In addition to the agony they suffered in covering long distances to reach the city, the shortage of doctors forced the patients and their relatives bear extra financial burden.
She observed that the health department had faced pressures for transfers and postings of doctors to Karachi and it would be challenging for her to stop the transfers of doctors to urban areas.
She would ensure that no more doctors and medical staffs were transferred to Karachi at least during her tenure as a caretaker minister.
“I also intend to visit Sindh government hospitals at other places outside Karachi and wherever it is felt necessary I will order for the reversal of posting, the detailment or deputation of doctors working in Karachi, instead of their original place of posting or appointments,” she said.
The minister said that rural population was already faced with several problems, particularly the poor quality of water, and therefore efforts should be made to resolve them.
Expressing her satisfaction over the working of orthopaedic and ENT wards, and surgical intensive care unit of the CHK, she said she was more concerned with the maintenance and cleanliness of the hospital. She said, “I would like to see an improvement in the overall physical and environmental conditions of the Civil Hospital, Karachi.”
The board of governors of the hospital, which met here with its head Abu Shamim M. Arif in the chair on Tuesday, gave approval to the tenders meant for shifting of the CHK’s eye and neurosurgery wards to the nearby premises of the Service Hospital, Karachi.
After shifting of the two wards, the available space would be utilised for Accidents and Emergency Centres and Ancillary Services Complex, which was planned about two years back.
Both the federal and provincial governments would provide finances for the trauma centre, the meeting was informed.
The shifting of wards and their re-housing in the existing and some new floors of the Services hospital at a cost of Rs45 million may take six to eight months, said a CHK official.
The board of governors requested the Sindh government to materialise long-awaited plan by releasing the allocation for teaching hospitals which was announced by the outgoing chief minister.
