New budget ignores woes of poor patients
The Sindh government has once again claimed improvements in healthcare, asserting increased health sector allocations while paradoxically achieving little in terms of improving patients' access to affordable healthcare.
Sindh's public hospitals, facing increasing patient pressure, had submitted a formal written request to the Sindh government for a substantial increase in grants in the annual budget.
However, the government rejected this request and instead allocated only an 8 per cent increase in grants for public hospitals. In contrast, a significant amount was allocated for NGOs working in the health sector, including public-private partnerships (PPP's) which were promised 50 per cent more funds.
According to sources of the Express Tribune, for the 2025-26 budget, the Sindh government has allocated Rs326.5 billion for the healthcare sector, which is a steady rise from the previous year's budget of Rs302.2 billion.
The budget for the People's Primary Healthcare Initiative has been increased from Rs12 billion to 16.5 billion, while the Gambat Institute's budget has been increased by Rs3 billion to 10 billion.
In essence, instead of improving the state of government hospitals, the Sindh government has allocated a total of Rs146.9 billion for over 60 NGOs operating under public-private partnerships, an increase from Rs90 billion.
Experts believe that this amount could have been used to provide health insurance to patients across Sindh, who remain deprived of adequate healthcare facilities. This is particularly imperative in a province where existing health facilities have seen no improvement in terms of bed capacity, despite annual budget increases.
At the Sindh Government Children's Hospital near Nagan Chowrangi, which operates under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Sabir, the father of 8-year-old Zohaib, shared his concerns. "The hospital staff and administration act as if the facility is privately owned. They often show a lack of attention toward patients and display a disrespectful attitude towards their attendants. It is a common issue at PPP hospitals that essential medicines are frequently unavailable, and emergency services are often not provided during night hours. The attitude of doctors and staff is generally indifferent," said Sabir.
Senior photographer at a daily, Jalal Qureshi, shared his recent experience of taking his granddaughter to the emergency department of NICVD's children's unit, where the guard and staff behaved extremely rudely with his son-in-law. "When I attempted to report the incident to the hospital director, I learned that the emergency department had been handed over to an NGO under the PPP model. The NGO staff gave the impression that the facility was a private hospital, with guards and staff appointed at the NGO's discretion," said Qureshi.
"No new hospital has been established in Karachi in the past decade, while the bed capacity of existing hospitals has not been increased either. Even in hospitals like Civil, Jinnah, and Lyari, the number of beds remains the same as it was before. Despite the Sindh government increasing the budget for these hospitals every year, no measures have been taken to increase the number of beds. There is no accountability in this regard. Under public-private partnerships, the Sindh government has handed over buildings of public hospitals to various NGOs, which use electricity, water, and manpower free of cost. Although the Sindh government allocates significant funds to these NGOs in the annual budget, patients do not benefit from it," claimed Dr Nighat Khan, Chairperson of the Women Care Foundation.
Former Caretaker Health Minister of Sindh, Dr Saad Khalid Niaz opined that the same funds could have been used to offer health insurance to the people. "Despite the Sindh government's annual claims of improving the healthcare sector, poor patients still face difficulties in accessing treatment. The number of government hospitals in the metropolitan city is insufficient for a population of over 20 million," said Dr Niaz.