KARACHI: Provincial caretaker Minister for Labour and Human Resources Simon John Daniel on Friday issued strict directives to officials to ensure the safety and security of staff and patients at Sessi healthcare facilities throughout Sindh, particularly in Sessi Landhi Hospital.

He said that the agreement with the security company hired for maintaining safety environment at Landhi Hospital should be cancelled if it fails to improve the situation within a week. The minister issued these instructions on the complaint of doctors during an introductory meeting at Sessi head office.

The labour minister was of the view that giving proper policy was beyond the mandate of the caretaker setup. However, he would not tolerate any negligence in carrying out day-to-day affairs during his tenure.

He said that Sessi needed to adopt a transparent and result-oriented mechanism for the welfare of its workers who were the backbone of our economy.

On the occasion, medical superintendents of Sessi hospitals also complained about the shortage of specialist doctors.

Earlier, Sessi vice commissioner Shah Muhammad Shah in a briefing said that 76 per cent funds of Sindh Employees Social Security Institute were spent on the health facilities to workers and their dependents. He said that development work was under way on four new health facilities in the province; 90pc of the development work of these new facilities at SITE Karachi (estimated cost Rs10 million), Sukkur (Rs10.37m), Nawa­bshah (Rs10.43m) and Dah­arki (Rs10.39m) had been completed.

He said that the “sanctioned strength of medical staff was 1,895 while 724 posts are vacant. Recently, 18 modern well-equipped ambulances have been provided to Sessi hospitals and laboratories of KVSS and Landhi hospitals have been upgraded,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2018