Daily Times

KARACHI: The number of visiting patients and their admission to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) hospitals has drastically declined in last five years due to unavailability of medicines, diagnostic facilities, and shortage of doctors.

Sources at KMC Health and Medical Services Department said that the number of OPD patients and admission to major public sector healthcare centres of KMC, including Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases, Sobhraj Maternity Hospital, Sarfaraz Rafiqui Shaheed Hospital, Leprosy Hospital Manghopir and Spencer Eye Hospital, had dropped by 20 to 25 percent due to shortage of medicines, doctors and unavailability of diagnostic facilities.

Sources said that KMC hospitals had been facing severe financial crisis since last many years and were unable to provide free of cost healthcare facilities to the patients adding that there is an acute shortage of medicines and doctors since last five.

Sources further said major diagnostic machines are lying out of order and administrations of these hospitals were unable to get it repaired due to shortage of funds. The supply of food to admitted patients had also stopped owing to financial crisis, while several development projects could not be completed yet despite passage of several years.

They said KMC could not provide funds for medicines and other operational activities since last several years adding that the KMC authorities have provided medicines in less quantity to the hospitals.

Sources said that due to non-supply of medicines and financial crisis, the poor and needy patients now prefer to go to other government hospitals run by Sindh Health Department. They said high-ups of KMC and provincial health department authorities concerned are well aware of prevailing situation of the institution but failed to address its crises.