Sindh seeks operational agreement with Centre to run hospitals

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho has urged the federal government to enter a management and operational agreement with the provincial government to run the three major hospitals of the city.

"Such agreement will entail that the operational and financial responsibilities of running these four institutions will rest with the provincial government, however, the hospitals will continue to remain the property of the federal government," wrote Dr Pechuho in a letter to Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Monday.

The provincial minister referred to the Supreme Court order dated July 2019 with regards to the control of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Sheikh Zayed Hospital and the National Institute of Child Health and stated that the apex court's order did not bar the Centre and Sindh from entering such an agreement.

Read: Sindh to approach Centre for hospitals’ control

Moreover, she wrote that the top court had directed the reimbursement of expenditures and financial outlays from the federal government to the Sindh government incurred by the latter till the date that the hospitals are handed over to the Centre.

According to Dr Pechuho, the Sindh government has incurred approximately Rs100 billion on the three hospitals since 2011, but the federal government has not yet intimated the provincial government regarding the reimbursement of expenditures.

Terming the notification issued by the Centre on March 17 - announcing the formation of a board of governors to run JPMC - in violation of the apex court's order, she stated that the three contested hospitals would continue to be managed and maintained by the Sindh government "in all respects."

The health minister had earlier urged the Centre to withdraw its notification stating that the presidentially promulgated Medical Teaching Institutes Ordinance 2020 had failed everywhere and that running the hospitals located in Karachi from Islamabad was impractical.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2021.