HYDERABAD: Doctors and paramedics of Red Crescent cardiology hospital of Latifabad have appealed to the authorities to help make the health facility functional once again to cater to the needs of heart patients of Hyderabad and the adjoining districts.

It was the only hospital after Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) and satellite centre of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) that used to offer cardiac healthcare facilities to the poor, said Red Crescent Action Committee president Dr Aijaz Arain, general secretary Dr Sumair Khan and press secretary Dr Sami Mughal while addressing a press conference the other day outside the hospital.

According to them, following an electoral dispute between two groups of civil society members, Red Crescent Society Hyderabad chapter, the situation become difficult and it started affecting hospital’s working. They said the provincial chapter had formed a committee headed by Kanwar Waseem with two other members, including Rafique Jafri and Shafqat Warsi, to fix things.

But the committee, they said, did not address the issues and when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, three doctors and 12 paramedics contracted the virus as they had been working without personal protection equipment (PPE). Then the committee said it was closing the hospital for disinfection for two days, but 19 days had passed and its affairs stayed put, they added.

Dr Arain said the hospital’s padlocks had been changed while the committee members were not attending phone calls of the doctors. “There are no funds to run the facility. We have 128 member staff, including doctors, paramedics, nurses etc, and they have not received their two months’ salaries yet. But they usually turn up outside the hospital, anticipating that it might start working again.”

He said the machinery in the hospital was functional, but the three-member committee was not able to make the whole hospital operational. He urged the two warring electoral groups to bury the hatchet in the larger interest of cardiac patients’ healthcare and the hospital.

Dr Arain said he had learnt that the hospital might be used for quarantine facility. He said hospital’s senior medical officers were trying to contact Karachi committee office-bearers, but they were not responding. They demanded that powers should be delegated to the deputy commissioner of Hyderabad for running the hospital.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2020