Pechuho admits lack of ICUs, HDUs

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazl Pechuho admitted on Tuesday that the province is facing a shortage of healthcare resources and facilities, intensive care units (ICUs) and high-dependency units (ICUs), ambulances and trained staff.

Replying to questions during a Sindh Assembly session, Pechuho said that ventilators reserved for Covid-19 patients are available mostly in Hyderabad and Karachi, and a lack of resources made it difficult to set up ICUs, other than those for housing coronavirus patients, elsewhere in the province.

"Besides, we don't have trained staff to run ICUs," she added.

She further ascribed the absence of an ICU in Mithi to the pandemic, adding that Mirpurkhas and Mithi also lacked HDUs.

"But we are training ICU technicians and are in the process of planning these units for all areas," she assured, however, adding that the objective could only be achieved after the government had dealt with the pandemic.

The minister also admitted the lack of ambulances in the province, saying that there were 521 ambulances in Sindh, of which most don't have ventilators.

When Grand Democratic Alliance MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi complained of a lack of ambulances for transporting bodies, the health minister replied, "Ambulances are not supposed to be used for shifting bodies."

"Then are we supposed to shift bodies on donkey carts," retorted Abbasi. "Such a minister should in fact resign from her post."

At this, Pechucho remarked that she wouldn't resign at someone else's will.

However, when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Shahnawaz Jadoon pointed out that the Sindh government had promised to procure 14 'well-equipped' ambulances for Karachi and hadn't made the purchases thus far, Pechuho agreed that the government hadn't been able to fulfill its commitment.

Gas crisis

Also addressing the session, Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh said Sindh was deprived of its due right on gas.

"The province's needs exceed beyond 1,500mmcfd [that it has been receiving]," he informed the lawmakers, adding that the CM has also raised the issue in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting.

He lamented that even cold regions weren't receiving sufficient supply of gas.

According to the provincial energy minister, the entire province has been facing gas load-shedding this winter.

"I have never seen inefficiency of this extent at the government level," he remarked.

As he went on to slam the federal government, holding it responsible for the gas shortage, opposition members created an uproar.

The provincial energy minister, however, held firm, maintaining that the Centre was to be blamed for the crisis.

"It is an important issue and whenever we talk about people's rights, they [the opposition] are riled up," he said amid ruckus. "In fact, the opposition, too, needs to condemn the federal government's behavior and admit that it is inefficient."

Such remarks drew a heated reaction from opposition members, leading to a war of words between the latter and the treasury members.

Eventually, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the session amid a pandemonium.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2020.