LARKANA: Officials at the Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH), the largest teaching hospital of upper Sindh, have complained of non-availability of required facilities.
In a meeting of the Hospital Management Board on Wednesday, presided over by the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University’s (SMBBMU) Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Ghulam Akbar Channa the Head of Department’s (HOD) complained about the shortage of staff, medicines, instruments and equipment which is badly affecting the hospitals performance.
They said that outdated X-ray machines are installed in the hospital where patients from all over Sindh and Balochistan come for treatment and demanded that the latest X-ray, CT scan and MRI machines should be installed in the hospital.
Shaikh Zayed Hospital for Women Professor Rafia Baloch said that over 40,000 women are attended to in the Out Patient Department (OPD) monthly but there is no OPD slip for them in the department due to which patients have to bring white paper sheets with them.
She further complained that the water of the hospital is not drinkable and security system is unreliable.
CMCH Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Mahboob Shah blamed the Health Department for not disbursing the full hospital budget. “The Health Department has disbursed 15 per cent of the total allocated budget, which the hospital has been utilising for the last six months. 85 per cent of the remaining budget is still with the Health Department,” he said.
He directed all HODs to submit their requirements to him so that he can forward them to the Health Department.
SMBBMU VC said that due to unavailable facilities in the hospital, professors cannot be blamed for negligence. “Cats and rates are found in the hospitals which cannot be driven out by the professors. The hospital can only improve its working with the coordination and cooperation of all concerned staff,” he added.
“We will pressurise Sindh Government to allocate a special budget for teaching hospitals to improve their service delivery. In next symposium, a special session is being kept which will highlight the issues of the CMCH and provide recommendations on January 20. These recommendations will then be sent to the government for implementation,“ he concluded.
