KARACHI, Dec 25: As many as 61 healthcare facilities, including hospitals, maternity homes and dispensaries, constructed over a couple of years in different towns of Karachi are still not operational because of a lack of funds.

The first half of the financial year is coming to an end, but the Sindh government has not yet provided the city government the promised sum to meet the salary and non-salary expenditures of the hospitals, said a senior health official of the city government.

The city government needs to appoint and post 750 to 900 general physicians and specialists to make the dormant health facilities functional, besides running the existing hospitals and dispensaries efficiently.

Commenting on the overall status of the CDKG-run hospitals and dispensaries, including 13 major facilities, a source in the district’s health department said that about 2,500 posts of doctors and 3,712 of paramedics had been included in the budgetary allocations of the government, but 15-20 per cent of the posts were virtually vacant since the retirement or death of the personnel initially occupying them. The prolonged ban on recruitment was among the reasons behind the vacancies, the source added.

Since the city government alone cannot meet the burden of staff salary and other necessities, it requested the Sindh government about seven months back to approve the sanctioned new expenditures (SNE) for the 61 healthcare facilities.

Consequently, the Sindh government announced a special allocation of Rs250 million for the city government’s expenditures on the eve of the 2007-08 budget.

The Sindh government had decided to allocate a one-time special grant of Rs500 million to various district governments in the province in order to enable them to launch their dormant new and old facilities.

There are about 240 healthcare units in the province, 61 of them in Karachi, that have been built and completed over the last couple of years but they have not yet been made functional because of the non-availability of the required funds with the district governments concerned. It has also been learnt that about 90 per cent of the city government health facilities have not been provided with appropriate furniture even for doctors.

A relevant official said that district government would not be able to overcome the shortage of doctors, even if the Sindh government released them the promised grant, unless the ban on recruitment imposed by the chief minister was lifted. According to an estimate, there is one doctor for every 5,000 patients and one paramedic for every 3,000 patients living within the jurisdiction of the city district government. The issue of ‘ghost employees’ is another factor aggravating the situation.

A big population in Shah Faisal, Malir, Orangi, Baldia, Gadap, Landhi, Nazimabad, Bin Qasim, Korangi, Jamshed, Site and Keamari towns is deprived of vital healthcare facilities which would, otherwise, have been available very close to their areas.