Daily Times

The Sindh High Court has ordered the Sindh government to provide the single line budget to all tertiary care hospitals in the province so that they can plan and execute development projects themselves.

The Hyderabad Circuit Bench of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar here Friday ordered the Sindh Secretary Health to visit both the branches of Liaquat University Hospital in Hyderabad and Jamshoro to take stock of the situation.

The petitioner’s counsel Advocate Rehana Siddiqui claimed that 4 to 5 children in the pediatric ward of the LUH were made to share one bed. The situation in the gynecological ward was also worse where at least two women share a single bed, she added.

It was pointed out to the court that the people from at least 13 districts of Sindh frequently visit the hospital for the outpatient, surgery and other treatments. According to the population census 2017, the combined population of those districts was over 135.47 million, the lawyer said.

The hospital had increased the number of Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) services from previous 9,000 to existing 11,000 per day, she added. The capacity for those seeking admission in the hospital had also been enhanced from 1,250 to 1,900. The petitioner further contended that keeping in view the continuously growing load of the patients the existing infrastructure appeared insufficient as evident by the bed sharing brutal reality.

The lawyer apprised the court that the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in compliance with the SHC’s November 10, 2016, order for providing new development schemes to the LUH so that the bed limit could be built up. After that order the Sindh Assembly legislated Management of Teaching Hospitals Act, transferring the administrative control of those hospitals to the vice chancellor of the concerned medical university.

Meanwhile, a report submitted by an Additional Medical Superintendent of the LUH acknowledged shortage of staff before the bench. The AMS said the daily OPD was around 12,000 while they had only 2,000 beds in each of the two branches of the LUH in Hyderabad and Jamshoro. “These aren’t enough to cope-up with the flow of the patients,” the AMS revealed. “The photographs and reports of the hospital as well as narration of the AMS are shocking and this is high time to interfere in this issue,” the bench stated in its short order. The court directed the Sindh Secretary Health to work on the development project which had been submitted by the VC headed board of the hospital.

“He shall personally visit both the hospitals and appear before this court with reasonable proposals and undertaking that how the situation will be catered,” the court ordered.

The court referred to its September 21, 2021, order in which the Sindh Finance Secretary was asked to provide the single line budget was provided from October, 2021, to all the tertiary care hospitals. The court had further ordered that a director finance should be appointed for such hospitals in that posts should be filled in three months. Until those appointments were made any ranking administrative official would be co-signatory of the budget along with the concerned Medical Superintendent.