KARACHI, Jan 30: It’s not that the senior officials of the Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad don’t want their institution to run 24 hours a day and seven days a week. They do.

Also, they do realize fully well that if they manage to run their hospital round the clock, they will be providing invaluable service and relief to the people residing in and around Liaquatabad, Federal Area, Federal B Area and Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

In the process they will also be relieving unnecessary pressures on Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Civil Hospital Karachi, allowing better services for people from the parts of the city not covered by their institution.

However, they cannot do so with the resources available to them at present. According to them, the Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad needs to be affiliated with a teaching institution. They told Dawn on Wednesday that an order was issued more than a year ago which linked their hospital to the Dow Medical College. Three other hospitals were also affiliated.

“When a hospital is affiliated with a teaching school some well-known professors begin visiting it,” said the hospital’s MS. “Similarly, the junior doctors doing their house jobs also are required to visit the hospital regularly.”

This way a mix of well-qualified and junior doctors have to visit the hospital regularly, said Dr Capt Munawwar Ali. The hospital thus gets a regular supply of badly-needed additional doctors.

The hospital would need three or four professionals, preferably surgeons, in every department if it was to be run round the clock, said Dr Ali. Surgeons were particularly needed in the gynaecology, orthopaedics and neurosurgery departments.

“A general surgeon is also badly needed,” said Dr Ali.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Abid Waheed, Dr Sanawar Pasha, Dr Anis Ahmed, Dr Anwar Zaheer and Dr Najmul Haq said a nursing training institute was also needed.

“This will not only allow better training facilities for the existing staff but also will also ensure a regular supply of potential new and bright nurses,” said Dr Pasha.

Once the hospital got affiliated with a medical college, postgraduate training for doctors could also be arranged for its doctors. “The College of Physicians and Surgeons could be asked to start their programmes here. Similarly, we can launch several other initiatives,” said Dr Ali.

The doctors said it was strange that an order had already been issued, linking the hospital to the Dow Medical College but which remained to be implemented. “This issue should be looked into at the highest level,” said Dr Ali.

Turning to the issue of funding, the hospital’s MS said it got about Rs7 million every year as a grant. “This amount is clearly insufficient. If this hospital is to be run 24 hours a day, more money will be required,” he added.