KARACHI, Jan 9: The situation obtaining at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), the third largest government-run healthcare facility in Karachi, is going from bad to worse.

The medical superintendent of the hospital, who is largely devoid of both administrative and financial powers, is unable to arrest the decline in the services provided at the hospital.

Prof Masood Javed told Dawn on Friday that the professors and assistant professors working for his hospital continued to report to the chief of Karachi Medical and Dental Hospital. He was not even supposed to decide on the leave applications of his staff, which must be forwarded to some functionaries of the city government.

The professor, worried about the future of the hospital, said in his short but bitter speech at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases that the authorities would either be forced to close it down soon or sell it to a private-sector organization.

He added that his suggestions for the improvement in the situation were either turned down or sent back to him by the high officials.

Nazim of Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, in his speech acknowledged that Abbasi Shaheed Hospital needed attention. He promised that he would look into the issue as soon as possible.

Talking to this reporter after the ceremony, Prof Javed said it was getting next to impossible to run the hospital. "I work at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital as a postman, not as its administrator.

"The authorities do not support us, as you know well. But, they regularly send us cuttings from newspapers, which depict the appalling conditions at the hospital."

He said that he did not respond to these 'show-cause notices'. "When they will ask why I don't answer, I will just say I am not responsible for the worsening situation. The people who help maintain the status quo are," he remarked.

The professor said the ceiling of his impressed account had been reduced from Rs250,000 to only Rs25,000. "I don't know why this step has been taken." A source told this reporter that not long ago, some private security guards had been hired by the hospital administration. "This step was taken after some expensive equipment had been stolen from the hospital.

Deputy Medical Superintendent of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Dr Mohammad Khalid said: "Every day is a torture. This cannot go on#for long. I don't know what the policy-makers have in mind. They must act now if they want to save the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital."