KARACHI, April 22: Early next month, the city's biggest children's hospital run by the provincial government will take a major step towards optimum utilization when its doctors will be seeing patients in the evenings as well.

The governor of Sindh announced the opening of an evening Out-Patient Department (OPD) during his visit to the facility - called the Sindh Government Children Hospital North Karachi - on Wednesday. He also expressed his desire to see the facility operate round the clock, a well-placed source told Dawn on Thursday.

At present only one OPD was functioning, from 9am to 2pm, said the source. "This means that the hospital remains open for only a part of the day," he remarked. "This is unacceptable for a hospital which has been built and equipped at a cost of Rs50 million. It should run 24 hours a day."

The acting medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Asif Zaman Khan, told this reporter that the evening OPD will start functioning in the first week of May. The timings of the OPD remained to be notified, he added.

Meanwhile, another health department official said the Sanctioned New Expenditure (SNE) of the hospital, under which its staff are to be appointed, was discussed in detail by the governor. He ordered that the SNE be reviewed and, if possible, more money be allocated for it.

According to him, the departments in the hospital that are yet to be made functional are: radiology department; eye department; ENT department; physiotherapy department; and, an inpatient department.

"This only shows that a hospital, which has the potential to become the leading hospital of the city, remains grossly underutilized". He disclosed that the health authorities were considering shifting the Civil Hospital Karachi's paediatrics department to the hospital, which was opened about a year ago after remaining non-operational for more than four years.