LARKANA, Oct 22: The Sindh finance department has agreed to the creation of 136 posts of officers and other staff with the financial implication of Rs39,580,000 to make functional the newly-established Institute of Child Healthcare at Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) in Larkana.
Speaking to Dawn here on Monday, CMCH Medical Superintendent Prof Dr Afsar Bhutto said it was the Schedule of New Expenditure (SNE) which the finance department had sanctioned.
Under the sanctioned SNE, the hospital management would advertise for the recruitment of 36 gazetted posts, including senior registrar, medical officers, physiotherapist, nutritionist, administrative officer, superintendent and 15 staff nurses, sources in the accounts department told this reporter on Monday.
The finance department issued a letter on Oct 11, 2012, with the signature of Ammanullah Keerio, section officer (B&F-V), mentioning that the expenditure involved will be met from the existing budget estimates of 2012-13 for Chandka Medical College Hospital in Larkana.
The department had only sanctioned the ‘salary’ component while there was no mention of the ‘operating cost’ which stood at Rs18 million, sources said.
This was quite confusing, the CMCH accounts section said.
But the MS said Larkana Commissioner Dr Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo, who had taken interest in getting the SNE sanctioned, had assured him of getting the required amount from the budget.
He said soon the advertisement would be placed in newspapers to fill 100 posts of lower staff to run the institute constructed adjacent to the existing CMC Children Hospital.
People at the helm of affairs came out of the slumber when news about deaths in CMC Children Hospital shot into prominence.The incidence drew their attention towards the incomplete building of the Institute of Child Healthcare.
Sources privy to the project said that full payments for the completion of the project had already been made while work on the ground was incomplete.
When pressure mounted, head of the department of paediatrics Prof Dr Saifullah Jamro called for early completion of the institute to minimise burden on the existing hospital where most of the time four to five children were kept on single bed.
The divisional and district administration with the instructions from high-ups expedited the efforts in consultation with all the lined departments so as to not only complete the building but to make it operational to lower the load on the hospital. The equipment were purchased in 2011, but were kept in the store of the CMCH, the sources in the department of paediatrics said.
Presiding over a meeting held a week ago, the commissioner of Larkana and hospital officials decided to open the institute by Oct 20. “We are almost ready to make it functional by Oct 24,” said Prof Dr Saifullah Jamro while talking to ‘Dawn’ on Monday.
He said the early opening of the institution would reduce load on the existing children hospital where equipment according to the specification had been installed. Quite encouraging was the establishment of modern child intensive care unit and intensive care unit for neonates, Mr Jamro said.
The Medical Superintendent said that some work is yet to be finalised and the Institute of Child Healthcare would be put in operation after Eidul Azha.
He thanked the commissioner of Larkana and Vice-Chancellor of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical University Professor Dr Akbar Haider Soomro for financial aid to help meet some needs.