ASH’s six medical departments on verge of closure

Six departments of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) Karachi are on the verge of closure due to non-availability of senior consultants, sources at the ASH told PPI on Tuesday.

The ASH’s administrative official on condition of anonymity said that around half a dozen departments in Karachi Municipal Corporation’s health care are on the verge of closure due to acute shortage of senior consultants. He said there was acute shortage of senior consultants in orthopedic, plastic surgery, burns, urology, radiology and anesthesia departments in the health care.

Due to unavailability of senior consultants, the patients with orthopedic, plastic surgery and urology problems are being referred to other public or private hospitals. He said: “Currently, these departments are being run by junior doctors.”

He said several doctors had left their jobs owing to burden of work, and some retired from their posts, while others left Pakistan over various issues. He said there was an acute shortage of senior consultants in those departments and if the government could not initiate hiring of doctors against vacant posts at the earliest, then the administration would be compelled to close the departments in near future.

He said visiting patients were also facing problems due to the dearth of senior consultants in the hospital, but the Karachi Municipal Corporation’s health department management had failed to address the problems being faced by public hospitals in Karachi.

Senior Director Health & Medical Services Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Dr Salma Kausar Ali, when contacted said there was no shortage of doctors in the hospital, as no any request from hospital administration had been received to her office yet.

She informed that a letter had been issued to the heads of hospitals from senior director health and medical services to stop granting leaves to senior doctors to go foreign countries for summer vocation, as patients would suffer due to unavailability of doctors.