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KARACHI, Jan 4: The procurement of Rs 60-million machinery and equipment for the city government's cardiology hospital in F B Area is in full swing.
City Nazim, Niamatullah Khan and DCO Fazlur Rehman have already approved proposals of the purchase committee.
The hospital administration was ordered to issue work orders to related firms and suppliers at once, so that all the needed equipment could be made fully available in the hospital before its formal opening.
These machinery and equipment include an X-ray machine, a Colour Doppler, medical monitors for emergency and CCU, ventilators, defabrillators, laboratory gadgets and analyzers for chemistry, electrolyte and histology, besides 120 beds and other related furniture.
To make the whole purchase affair transparent, the city Nazim has set up a purchase committee, headed by Professor Dr Abdul Sammad, with Professor Dr Masood Javed, Professor Dr Sharif Chaudhry, Dr Abdul Khalique, Dr Jalaluddin Saifi and the EDO (health) as the members.
The committee managed to obtain a Rs 2 million rebate and full after-sale-service guarantee from the suppliers. Earlier, another purchase of equipment for angiography, echocardiography and the ETT, worth Rs 30 million was finalized. Presently, they were being installed in the hospital.
A PC-1 had already been finalized to set up 10 chest-pain emergency centres in various parts of the city. These centres would be run under the public-private partnership.
Various firms, social organizations and philanthropists have already offered their services for running these centres. All these centres would also be linked with a tele-medicine system. The city Nazim has invited the prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, to inaugurate the first phase of the hospital, hopefully in the last week of February 2005.
UNHYGIENIC FOOD: City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has taken notice of sale of unhygienic edible items, particularly processed by sulphuric acid, bleach and other chemicals, which are disastrous for human health.
Taking notice of reports in the media, the City Nazim directed the DCO Karachi to issue show cause notices to the the EDO of Health and District Officer Quality Control City District Government Karachi as to what measures they have taken for checking and restricting the said activities.
He attributed this situation to negligence on the part of concerned department and officials as they have failed to take any notice of the situation.
Naimatullah Khan sought for a report within 3 days about the appointment of officials in the health department, the procedure for monitoring the sale of eatables, responsibilities of the officials in checking the adulterated and injurious items. -PPI/APP
