KARACHI, July 6: The Gazdar General Hospital in old city area has been victim of neglect for the past many years due to indifferent attitude of the authorities concerned.

Talking to Dawn, the medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Naveed Sarfraz Arab, conceded that shortage of doctors and technical staff were two serious problems which must be solved immediately by higher authorities.

Besides, he said the hospital should be renovated and efforts should be made to give all facilities that a modern hospital enjoyed. Situated in a densely populated area of Ranchore Lane, the Gazdar General Hospital caters the needs of a population largely comprising low-income groups in Saddar Town.

Under the defunct KMC setup, this hospital had been operating as maternity home. Later, it was upgraded as a full-fledged hospital in 1992. However, due to the ban on fresh appointments since 1997, the hospital has been facing shortage of doctors.

The MS said that the situation was gravely affecting general working conditions of the hospital, besides problems for ailing people. He said that no major development work had been carried out in the hospital since 1997 due to paucity of funds.

He was of the view that the present budgetary allocation was insufficient to meet the development needs of the hospital. The hospital has medical, orthopaedic, gynae and obstetrics wards as well as pathological lab, X-ray, ultra sound and ECG facilities. It also performs major and minor surgeries.

He said that the hospital could play a vital role in providing health facility to a large section of the old city area. He suggested that the hospital should be extended by annexing an old building, which existed within the hospital vicinity. In this regard, he said that he had also submitted his proposals to the higher authorities.