Drivers of private ambulance services have encroached emergency and entrance gates of two major hospitals of Karachi – Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and National Institute of Child Helath (NICH) – causing grave inconvenience to patients and doctors.
An administrative official of National Institute of Child Health told PPI that the provincial government of Sindh had made the road leading from Jinnah Sindh Medical University to Jinnah flyover one way about four montha ago to ensure speedy reach of ambulances towards the major public sector hospitals including Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) during rush hours.
Unfortunately, some private rescue organisations have illegally set up their ‘ambulance counters’ outside the entrance gates of JPMC and NICH. Following their suit, local auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers have also established their illegal terminals around the hospital in connivance with corrupt traffic police officials.
The roads leading to these hospitals are also encroached by the illegal kiosks, pushcart vendors and fruit sellers forcing the pedestrians to walk on road. The civic agency of the area has failed to remove these illegal encroachments and retrieve the footpaths near hospitals as corrupt elements get regular bribes from the encroachers. The whole footpath near a bank branch outside the NICVD has also been encroached but the concerned civic agency has turned a blind eye to this grave violation of law.
The encroachments of road and footpaths have made it difficult for patients and ambulance drivers to easily enter these hospitals during rush hours. The staffers of these hospitals also face hardships due to the illegal encroachments.
The encroachments around hospitals have become serious nuisance for visiting patients, attendants, ambulance drivers and medical staff. These unchecked encroachments cause constant road blockages during rush hours and make it difficult for ambulance drivers to speedily shift injured people to hospitals due to encroachments.
When contacted, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center Spokesman Dr Jawaid Akhter Jamali said that the hospital administration had requested the district administration and traffic police authorities to remove the encroachment outside the institution to ensure smooth arrival and departure of ambulances carrying patients. He hoped that the concerned departments including traffic police would cooperate and the illegal encroachments would be removed soon.