The Sindh government is paying heavy bills running in millions of rupees to costly private hospitals for the treatment of injured cops and police officers, and it urgently needs to upgrade its own police hospitals to save itself from these huge costs and spend it on the welfare of police force.
The Home Department Sindh pays millions of rupees for the treatment of its policemen injured in the line of duty. However, unfortunately it does not bother to upgrade the Sindh Police Hospital in Karachi, an official from the Sindh Police Hospital informed on Monday.
He said that if a fraction of the money paid to private hospitals to clear bills of treatment of the injured cops is spent on upgrading the Sindh Police Hospital Karachi, it can save a huge budget, which can be spent on opening more hospitals and schools in different districts of Sindh for the welfare of police force. The official said a large number of cops gets injuries while fighting with militants and mafias, especially those operating in Karachi; however, the police hospital in the city does not have modern facilities like trauma centres, emergency centres and updated surgical theatres to provide emergency treatment facilities to the injured cops and officers, besides giving better regular healthcare facilities to police officials and their families.
He said police officials who sustain bullets in encounters, are injured in bomb blasts, or receive wounds in road accidents while chasing criminals, are shifted to costly private hospitals due to the better healthcare facilities available in these institutions. However, the department has to pay millions of rupees as medical treatment bills to these hospitals. He said these figures are not made public, but these amounts are so huge that a top class hospital and trauma centre could be made from them. He said sadly, the department is generous enough to pay these huge amounts to the private hospitals, but reluctant to increase the annual budget for the Sindh police hospital. He claimed that during the last ten years, neither the budget of the Sindh police hospital in Karachi has been raised nor important projects like a trauma centre and emergency centre have been established there.
He informed that there are around 40,000 police officials and personnel in Karachi, who perform their duties to protect the life and property of citizens, but strangely no specialist doctors, have been sanctioned for the 62-bed Sindh Police hospital. This important police hospital urgently needs specialist doctors like general surgeon, gynaecologists, psychiatrists, radiologists, orthopaedic surgeons, pathologists and anaesthesiologists to provide better healthcare facilities to police officers, cops and their families.
He informed that the department has paid Rs. 7.5 million rupees between 2011-2014 to one private hospital alone for the treatment of 213 police officers and personnel. However, some vested interests do not want to improve the service standard of the Sindh police hospital Karachi, as it would deprive some private hospitals of the city from a regular and lucrative income.
President, Pakistan Medical Association Karachi, Prof Dr Idrees Adhi, said that the Sindh Police Hospital Karachi should be upgraded on the pattern of the hospitals that belong to the armed forces. He said that the police hospital should be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities on urgent basis. He said PMA has full sympathy with the police officers and personnel who are bravely performing their duties to protect life and property of citizens.
Medical Superintendent of Sindh Police Hospital Karachi, Dr Muhammad Younis Chachar, when contacted, said that the hospital administration has been receiving Rs. 8.7 million for the annual budget from the government since the last ten year, but due to the increase of prices of drugs, expenditures on patients and rising utility bills, it has become too difficult to management the hospital on these meagre funds.
He said that the hospital is built on the land of the health department, while currently its affairs are in the hands of the home department. The health department only provides manpower to this hospital as per its sanctioned capacity, which also needs an urgent review so that posts for specialist doctors, surgeons and medical technicians can be created.