Daily Times

KARACHI: The administration of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital has been facing an acute shortage of medicines which forced patients to buy drugs from other pharmacies.

Abbasi Shaheed Hospital – a medical facility administered by Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) – is facing a severe shortage of medicines. Due to the shortage, most patients have no solution other than purchasing the prescribed drugs from other pharmacies.

Along with medicine shortage, CT Scan and X-ray machines are also not functional for nearly four years. The X-ray machine is partially functional but it has no film and physicians take photos through mobile phones to examine the patients’ fractures.

Sources said that Karachi Medical and Dental College was also facing a financial crisis, whereas, its teaching hospital was facing a scarcity of funds.

In another development today, the Sindh government has gotten back control of three Karachi hospitals from the federal government after three years.

The control of Jinnah Hospital, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), and the National Institute of Pediatrics Karachi (NICH) was handed over to the Sindh government due to the tireless efforts of provincial health minister Dr Azra Pechucho.

The federal government approved the request to transfer the control of three major hospitals in Karachi to the provincial government. After the approval of the federal government, Jinnah Hospital, NICVD, NICH Karachi will be given to the Sindh government on a 25-year lease.

Sindh government will look after the administrative and financial affairs of the three major hospitals of Karachi. The control of hospitals was taken over by the federal government during Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s government.

Under the lease agreement, the land of the three hospitals in Karachi will remain in the name of the federal government, the Sindh government will be able to make appointments and recruitments in Jinnah Hospital, NICVD, and NICH.