KARACHI, Nov 13: Patients requiring head surgery will continue to suffer as the currently inoperative Department of Neuro Surgery at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital cannot be made operative because no neuro surgeon is ready to serve there.

The Neuro Surgery Department of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital has been inoperative for the last two years, and during his visit to the hospital on 20th of September, Nazim karachi Naimatullah Khan had strongly directed the EDO, health and MS, Abbasi Shaheed hospital to take steps to make the department functional.

Abbasi Shaheed Hospital is the only city government hospital to have this facility.

Apart from Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, the neuro surgery departments are functioning at the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Collage (JPMC) and Civil Hospital, both operated by the federal and provincial governments respectively.

Despite efforts by EDO health Ali Nawaz Shaikh, no specialist or consultant is willing to work in the public sector, even on contract basis.

However, the neuro ward in Civil Hospital has two specialists and the JPMC too has a couple of senior neuro specialists who can be called on deputation at Abbasi Shaheed.

According to sources, EDO health has been suggested by doctors of the department to request competent authorities for transfer of neuro consultants from any of these hospitals on deputation.

They maintained that doctors have been posted on deputation in the KMC hospitals (now city government ) in the past also.

The provincial health department is facing shortage of specialists and consultants, and despite repeated announcements made through te public service commission, no candidate has come forward.

Specialists/consultants/surgeons are appointed on grade 18, whereas it is more convenient for them to serve in the private sector or be self employed.

Another major reason for unwillingness of senior doctors to serve in the health department is inadequate facilities, uncertain working conditions and undue job stress in the form of lengthy bureaucratic channels required for minor approvals.

According to a senior doctor working in the Sindh government, a number of senior doctors leave their jobs only because they are transferred to any remote places, which means uprooting them after they have settled in a certain area for many years.

The provincial secretary health, in his recent address to district Nazims of the interior Sindh, assured them that the department was working on a new plan to facilitate doctors in rural areas, which would eventually improve the standard of medical services in those areas.—PPI