KARACHI, Jan 24: The Sindh government and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Sindh secretariat on Thursday for the construction of a hospital in Jacobabad. The project, to cost $10 million, will be funded by USAID.

“The idea for building a hospital in Pakistan came from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and soon USAID and the government of Sindh got involved to help make it happen. The site was agreed upon and USAID will now be funding the construction for the 133-bed hospital, the Jacobabad Institute of Medical Sciences (JIMS),” said Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed during a briefing followed by the MoU signing.

“The groundbreaking ceremony will take place sometime in February.”

USAID deputy mission director Leon Waskin said on the occasion that the signing of the MoU was like the culmination of a long process of working with the government. “We have been involved in this project since 2010 now. Besides the department of health, USAID is also working with the Sindh government’s department of planning and development for other projects.

Asked if the hospital would offer free services, Mr Waskin said they were only helping in the hospital’s construction and could not comment on that as the health facility would be run by the Sindh government.

But commenting on the same question, Dr Sagheer Ahmed said they planned not to charge anything, especially for children and women’s health. “Like we are doing already at the recently-inaugurated fistula and gynaecology ward at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi, where the United States and Pakistan are working together to train medical professionals, and strengthen maternal and child health services,” he said.

The planned hospital will provide high-quality healthcare to not just the people of Sindh but of Balochistan also. USAID support will provide medical equipment as well as a solar energy system and standby generators to ensure a continuous energy supply to the state-of-the-art medical facility. It was also said that the Sindh government would introduce a law creating an independent hospital management board comprising government officials, noted health practitioners and civil society representatives to oversee the administration of JIMS and ensure that it provided the highest standards of care. Earlier, the MoU was signed by Mr Waskin and Sindh health secretary Aftab Ahmad Khatri.

Measles

Sindh Minister for Health Dr Sagheer Ahmed said that he would like a second dose of measles vaccine in Sindh but had been told that it was not needed as yet.

The minister said that routine immunization and the vaccine was the same in the entire country so the outbreak in upper and lower Sindh were mind boggling. “We have also completed crash vaccinations in 11 days. But it also takes time for the vaccine to work,” he said.

When asked if the vaccine being used was spoilt, the minister dismissed the notion saying that the weather these days would in fact preserve the medicine and keep it from getting spoilt.

Asked if they could prevent the spread of the contagious disease by quarantining the affected children, he said: “It is just not possible to isolate such a huge number of children.”