Clearing the mess: SHC hands over administrative control of health facility to university

Teaching hospital has remained under the secretary of health; order passed to ensure provision of effective healthcare

HYDERABAD: The Sindh High Court has ordered the handover of the administrative control of the Peoples Medical Hospital, Benazirabad, to the vice-chancellor (VC) of the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences, Benazirabad.

The divisional bench of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Muhammad Iqbal Mehar, after an hour-long hearing during which the health officials took the rap for missing facilities, passed this order on Thursday.

"The VC shall constitute a committee within three days and take over the control of this hospital and ensure that patients are receiving all facilities and upcoming doctors [students] are provided every facility for their learning," the order read.

The court also placed the Rural Health Centre Punhal Khan Chandio under the control of the VC. Both the health facilities, administered by the medical superintendent and an incharge, respectively, have so far remained under the administrative control of the secretary of health.



The court noted that district and taluka hospitals in Sindh are under the control of the Sindh health director-general. Meanwhile, the teaching hospitals, which are also supposed to provide training to medical students, are not under the administrative authority of the universities and colleges.

"Under these circumstances, the medical superintendent, who is under the domain of secretary health and the universities are shifting burden upon each other, while the public that is normally under the poverty line are suffering."

The court also noted that Dow Medical University, Karachi, enjoys administrative control of its teaching hospital but all the other government teaching hospitals have the secretary of health as their authority.

The bench based its order for the Peoples Medical Hospital on a provision in the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Shaheed Benazirabad Act, 2015. "Constituent hospital or centre shall be the constituent hospital or centre of the university," reads section 2 (ix-a) of the Act. "Medical superintendent shall work under the administrative control of the vice-chancellor," read the Act.

The bench ordered the secretaries of health and law to assist the court about determining authority of the health department or the respective medical universities over the teaching hospitals in Sindh. The hearing will resume on December 1.

The petitioner, Mumtaz Qureshi, a social worker residing in District Benazirabad, prayed the court for the handover and for an order to the government to enhance the hospital's budget and provide necessary medicines. He also pleaded the court to order the authorities to ensure regular attendance of the professors at the hospital, removal of private medical stores from the premises and other facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2016.