SC orders action against truant health staff in Thar

Health secretary says recruitment of new doctors is in progress

KARACHI:

The apex court rejected the report of the Sindh Health Department on facilities at Tharparkar and directed to take action against absent and truant doctors and paramedical staff and provide all necessary facilities at Civil Hospital Mithi.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed held a hearing on the issue of malnutrition in Tharparkar at the Supreme Court Karachi Registry.

Justice Ahsan remarked: "We visited the Civil Hospital Mithi. There were no facilities and the operation theatre seemed to be a mortuary. There were no doctors."

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Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed remarked that the situation is very bad there. He said only recruitments were being made and no practical work was being done. "There may be 15,000 health workers but no one is visible," he remarked.

The health secretary said that recruitment of new doctors was in progress.

Judicial Assistant Faisal Siddiqui said that 400 children died in Thar in 2018 but the commission's report states nothing happened.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2021.