Money problems: KMC’s health services dept owes contractors Rs350m

Senior director says special grants from Sindh govt can help end financial crisis

KARACHI: The medical and health services department of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) owes Rs350 million to its various suppliers, KMC medical and health services senior director Dr Muhammad Ali Abbasi told The Express Tribune.

He claimed that the total amount has been accumulated over a period of four years. According to Abbasi, the department does not have funds to purchase medicines and to repair or replace old equipment in hospitals running under the KMC.

Hence, the department requires special annual grant from the Sindh government, he added.

To cope up with the crisis, Abbasi said that the department had moved a summary last week for the annual grant of Rs600 million to resolve the pending issues of hospitals that are running under the KMC. According to him, the department is running 13 hospitals throughout the metropolis, which have a total 2,000 beds.

Abbasi claimed that the grant of Rs177 million, which was given to the KMC’s health department last month, was used to solve the issue of lack of equipment in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, while the rest was used in purchasing medical supplies for other hospitals. He added that the restoration of certain facilities, such as CT-scan, MRI Scan, X-Ray films, availability of drugs, bandages, syringes, laboratory kits and drips, have been acquired for the hospitals running under the KMC.

Other pending issues have still to be resolved, said Abbasi, adding that the six months’ pending salaries of house officers and residents working in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital will be released within 10 days. The hospital’s house officers and residents have not been paid for the last nine months.

Abbasi believes that the crisis can only be solved if the Sindh government keeps on issuing regular grants to the KMC’s medical and health services department in the future. He said that handing over the hospitals under the KMC to Sindh government’s health department cannot resolve the issues of the patients, doctors and staff.

A large portion of the budget is spent on paying salaries due to overemployment in the KMC, claimed Abbasi. He added that the medical and health services budget is mentioned in the budget book of the KMC but the sanctioned amount has not been released.

Abbasi believes that it is their responsibility to do good governance but without enough resources it is not possible for them to deliver health facilities to the citizens.

However, Abbasi thanked Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah for approving the previous grant, which has now been utilised. Furthermore, he said that the additional grant, whose summary has been sent to the provincial government, can improve the condition by ending the financial crisis up to some level.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2016.