KARACHI, Dec. 18: The Sindh Government Children's Hospital, North Karachi -- which was opened in July last year after it had remained non-operational for more than five years - is facing a host of problems. The hospital was built at a cost of Rs50 million and it was supposed to provide care to some 2,000 children every year.

The hospital has several pieces of equipment, including an X-Ray machine, which are yet to be pressed into service for want of trained paramedical staff. At the same time, there are departments, which are not working to an optimum level due to a shortage of machines. An example of such a wing is the dental department.

Prof Noshad A. Shaikh, the health secretary, visited the hospital on Saturday afternoon with Ahsan Zaidi of the Saarc Healthcare Foundation and Capt Haleem A. Siddiqui, a well-known industrialist and politician, to look into the possibility of forming a partnership between the public sector and private entrepreneurs with a view to making the hospital fully functional within a short period of time. Prof D.S. Akram, a well-known paediatrician, was also present.

It was decided during the meeting between the health secretary and the two businessmen that in the first phase of the proposed project aimed at reviving the healthcare unit, the private sector would provide medicines as well as the requisite staff so that its casualty and outpatient departments were made fully functional soon. In the second phase, the inpatient departments would be developed and in the third the hospital would be expanded.

Both Capt Siddiqui and Mr Zaidi told journalists that they were visiting the hospital as philanthropists and not as politicians or social activists. They said before investing in the project they wanted to make absolutely sure that proper systems were in place so that difficult management and financial issues did not crop up later.

Prof Shaikh assured the two gentlemen that several projects had been launched in the Civil Hospital Karachi under which graduates of the Dow Medical College had helped upgrade and improve its departments. Many of these projects were functioning satisfactorily several years after their launch. One of these projects could be replicated in the case of the children's hospital.

Prof Shaikh informed the journalists that 30 doctors belonging to the health department's school health service had been deputed to the children's hospital with a view to keeping its OPD and casualty departments going. However, due to several problems both departments were not being run properly.

Answering a question, the health secretary said the hospital had an annual Sanctioned New Expenditure (SNE) document of only Rs2.5 million, of which about Rs1 million was spent on salaries. The amount allowed to the hospital was comparable to a clinic's.

"I am not satisfied with the way this hospital, with so many possibilities, is being managed," he said. "I want the private and public sectors to collaborate in this regard."

Prof D.S. Akram said many child specialists working for the health department could be transferred to the hospital, who could ensure that it was run properly. She said the hospital was also in need of a dynamic professional as leader, who could bring about a turnaround.