KARACHI, Oct 30: The nazim of Karachi has decided in principle to constitute a governing body that will run the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, which is at present in dire straits. The proposed governing body will also be responsible for the affairs at the Karachi Medical and Dental College, which is affiliated to the ASH.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday Dr Fayyaz Alam, an adviser to the nazim, said a draft proposal had been prepared which would be tabled during the next meeting of the City Council.

"The City Council is likely to accept the proposal," said Dr Alam.

He said the governing body would act as an umbrella organization which would look after the hospital as well as its teaching wing, the KMDC. "This arrangement will do away with the duality of command that had crept into the system when the hospital was being run independently by its medical superintendent and the KMDC by its principal."

Under the proposed system, both the KMDC principal and the hospital superintendent would be held accountable for their performances by a governing body, which would be headed by the nazim of Karachi, said Dr Alam.

The proposed system was inspired by a mechanism featuring in the health ordinances which were already in force in Punjab and the NWFP.

Dr Alam said the governing body would comprise - besides the nazim, the medical superintendent of the hospital and the principal of KMDC - the DCO, the EDO finance as well as some notables of the city.

Answering a question, Dr Alam said the proposal could be implemented within the next 30 days. "But the key issue is the approval which is to be granted by the City Council. If the council unfortunately rejects the proposal, we would have to go back to the drawing board."

Meanwhile, the proposed system has been under discussion for the past several months. It has been floated by the medical superintendent of the hospital, Prof Masood Javed, in an effort to help improve the situation obtaining there.

Many of the hospital's departments remain underutilized as it faces a host of administrative and financial difficulties. Over the years, the number of people visiting the hospital's outpatient department has declined steadily.

The number of people being admitted to its wards has also shown a sharp decline, with only about one-fourth of its beds being occupied at any given time, some sources told Dawn.

All this is despite an annual budget of more than Rs300 million.

The patients and their attendants routinely have to buy medicines from the market even though at least Rs80 million is allocated every year under the budget for contingencies and surgical disposables. At least Rs150 million is set aside every year for payroll and other establishment expenses.