Daily Times

The outgoing Medical Superintendent (MS) of Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH), Larkana, Dr Ali Gohar Dahri, noted that working and services in the hospital could not be improved until and unless the involvement of Paramedics Association acting as a union and local political leadership was not eliminated.

He added he was unable to transfer even a sanitary worker due to the union pressure, which used threats to paralyse the hospital by strikes.

The menace of unionism must be wiped out of healthcare facilities in the interest of poverty-stricken patients, he maintained.

Dr Dahri will relinquish the charge on Monday after his retirement on attaining the age of superannuation.

On February 2, 2018, he had taken over as CMCH MS in BPS-20.

Before his retirement, he told Daily Times on Sunday the improvements needed by the largest teaching hospital of the rural populace with a 1500-bed capacity so that the poor patients may not suffer.

Dr Dahri called the issues of human resources including a shortage of sanitary workers and vacant posts from top to bottom including male/female Medico-Legal Officers and Casualty Medical Officers, major problems, which need to be addressed on an emergency basis.

He added that consultants were not taking rounds in evening and night shifts even on their emergency days; aggravating the situation.

Former MS said that previously, Heads of Departments (HODs) were taking evening and night rounds on a rotation basis when they were working in Chandka Medical College (CMC) alone.

However, after the establishment of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU), Larkana, things were said to have changed and most were seen running after the lucrative posts of the university while PGs were managing the wards.

He noted that he had remained posted here for about 14 months.

” I did not see any HOD visiting emergency patients in Casualty,” he claimed.

The ex-head said CMCH badly needed a replacement of all outdated diagnostic machinery, equipment and instruments on an emergency basis.

Its beds, mattresses, ambulances, ultrasound & x-ray machines, laboratories’ instruments, MRI and CT Scan must also be replaced forthwith for proper diagnostic reports, he added.

Dr Dahri remarked that he had written three letters to Health Secretary to replace the old machinery, being handed over personally to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and member of Provincial Assembly, Faryal Talpur, but nothing materialized.

He noted that the list of required machinery had even been sent to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the directive of former Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar during his visit to CMCH yet it also remained fruitless.

Merely 444 sanctioned posts from BPS-17 to 19 were not enough for 40 CMCH wards, for which at least 1850 more posts should be newly created, including specialist cadres, he continued.

The MS said that it would greatly benefit the indoor patients while reliance on university doctors would reduce considerably.

He said that honest and expert officers must also be posted in all administrative sections for efficiency, which was nil at the moment.

The medicine supply should also be ensured on time along with Local Purchase Budget, which is reserved for emergency life-saving drugs, Dr Dahri noted.

“If these steps are taken urgently, I am sure this great hospital will start delivering,” he concluded.