HYDERABAD: The Sindh government has bifurcated the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) — the province’s second largest tertiary hospital — to make its Jamshoro and Hyderabad units financially independent in terms of budgetary allocations and administrative oversight.
According to a summary available with Dawn, 57 new posts would be created in addition to the existing sanctioned 3,786 posts. These new posts have been submitted for approval of the chief minister by Finance Secretary Fayyaz Ahmed Jatoi and, according to the summary, it was approved by the CM late last month.
The creation of the new posts entails a financial implication of Rs45.094m and an 8pc increase of operational budget in 2026-27 alone.
LUH medical superintendent had submitted a technical proposal for the establishment of LUH Jamshoro as an administratively and financially independent teaching hospital by way of bifurcation of the existing budget, operational heads, services, employees and cost centres. (A cost centre is a technical term used in finance department to deal with budgetary requirements like releases, allocation, revision, etc).
Both hospitals to function as financially independent units with separate budgets, say officials
“As per the technical proposal, the LUH will work under separate medical superintendents independently with separate budgets. The administrative hierarchy will remain separate as well, but teaching faculty from the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) will remain the same. “If there is a point of any clarity, it will be accordingly clarified later on,” LUH Medical Superintendent Dr Ershad Kazmi told Dawn.
The approval of the summary indicates that the LUH would now be managed by two medical superintendents for its Hyderabad and Jamshoro units. Under the current scheme of things, (ever since the establishment of this tertiary hospital), it had been headed by a single MS. An additional MS sits at the Jamshoro unit.
The summary / proposal details of the health department indicate that the LUH is operating under a single consolidated cost centre “despite functioning through two district healthcare facilities at Hyderabad and Jamshoro districts”.
Over the years, says the summary, hospitals have expanded significantly in terms of infrastructure, bed strength, patient load, specialised healthcare services and human resource requirements. The health department has argued that “continuation of unified administrative and financial structure has resulted in operational, budgeting, procurement, and administrative constraints thereby adversely affecting efficient healthcare delivery and institutional governance”.
According to the summary, the Jamshoro LUH has 749 operational beds whereas the Hyderabad LUH has 1,348. The Jamshoro campus includes multiple operating theatres, intensive care unit (ICU) facilities, radiology, pathology, dialysis units, emergency services and various specialised healthcare services. Despite functioning substantially as an independent healthcare facility, the Jamshoro LUH lacks separate administrative and financial authority due to absence of an independent cost centre.
“In order to improve financial transparency, administrative efficiency, institutional accountability and service delivery, it is proposed to bifurcate the existing consolidated budget and establish two separate cost centres for LUH Hyderabad and LUH Jamshoro,” says the health department.
The proposal submitted by the MS highlights several administrative and operational issues arising from the existing arrangement, including management of two campuses under a single administrative structure, delays in procurement and human resource approvals, overburdening of the Hyderabad LUH administration and suboptimal utilisation of infrastructure and services at Jamshoro LUH. It contained a detailed bifurcation plan of the existing pay and operational budget along with additional budgetary requirements for 2026-27.
As per summary’s details, out of an operational budget of a little over Rs4.077 billion, over Rs2.650 billion would be part of Hyderabad LUH’s cost centre; and over Rs1.427 billion for the Jamshoro LUH. An amount of nearly Rs794 million would be required as additional budget for the new cost centre, in addition to close to Rs1.444 billion for the existing cost centre.
An amount of over Rs1.661 billion has been recommended by the health department for a new cost centre (Jamshoro LUH) for 2026-27, in addition to a little over Rs3.085 billion of the existing cost centre, which is 16.41pc increase for 2026-27.
Health management board
It has not been clarified in the summary as to how the LUH’s Health Management Board would work or there will be a separate board for the Jamshoro LUH when it is made an independent entity. The board was established as under the Sindh Teaching Hospitals (Establishment of Management Board) Act, 2020. It is headed by the LUMHS Vice Chancellor as its chairman.
One board official claimed, however, that the board would serve as an umbrella for both LUH wentities with a single chairman.
Under the Act 2020, selection of finance director through a competitive process is also part of it. LUH’s first-ever finance director was appointed only belatedly. Zaheer Abbas Bhatti is LUH’s fully-fledged Finance Director notified by the Sindh government on May 20. The board in its last meeting had opposed the bifurcation plan shared by the LUH medical superintendent.
The MS had claimed that the proposal was prepared under directives of the Sindh health minister. MS Ershad Kazmi, however, insisted that the board would remain the same to deal with various issues under its domain for both the LUH entities.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2026