Public sector medical facilities in Sindh extremely poor: Haleem

Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, expressing extreme discontentment on state of public sector medical facilities in the province, has issued white paper on performance of Sindh Health Department.

Addressing a press conference at the Sindh Assembly building on Tuesday, Haleem said that due to dilapidated condition of public hospitals and health care sector and non-availability of even the basic facilities there, it was imperative to issue Health Card in Sindh so that people of the province could avail better medical facilities at par with other provinces of Pakistan.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has provided health insurance coverage of up to Rsone million to every citizen of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and other areas which enabled them tao avail medical facilities at the best private sector hospitals throughout Pakistan but Sindh government was opposing issuance of health card only for the political reason that it was a public welfare scheme by PTI government.

In Sindh people did not find doctors and other paramedical staff in government hospitals which always remained short of medicines and diagnostic facilities, Haleem said and added "Even an ambulance could not be found to carry dead body if a patient dies due to non-availability of proper healthcare in the hospital."

Carrying patients and dead bodies on donkey or bull carts and rickshaws, poor hygiene and sanitation in hospitals, treatment of two and even three patients on a single bed or even on benches and floor were common scenes in hospitals of Sindh, he observed.

Almost all of the rural and basic health centres and most of the taluka and district level medical facilities in the province just refer the patients to tertiary care hospitals situated in major cities and healthcare facilities were scarce there as well, he pointed out adding that several victims of dog bite particularly minor children lost their lives because anti-rabies vaccine was not available to them.

He reprimanded PPP spokespersons for unashamedly boasting off their performance in health sector and for making false claims that hospitals of the province were improved to an extent that people from all over Pakistan and even from abroad were coming to Sindh for medical treatment.

"People would believe them only if PPP leaders and ministers start taking medical treatment in government hospitals of Sindh instead of going to private hospitals or traveling abroad for the purpose," he maintained.

PPP had completely failed to ensure healthcare facilities for people of Sindh despite spending more than Rs768 billion during their 14 year-long government in Sindh and now they were resisting health card that tantamount to hostility to people of Sindh and adding insult to their injury, Haleem remarked.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2022.