Not just about medicine: Drama unfolds at KMC as health facilities asked to deposit entire income to central accounts

Over 20 departments of the KMC have been asked to generate more revenue for the municipality


Noman Ahmed August 29, 2014

KARACHI:


The cash-strapped Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has decided to siphon the millions of rupees income off its nearly 250 health facilities into the municipality’s central accounts in a bid to what its officials termed “mitigating the great financial loss,” The Express Tribune has learnt on Wednesday.


On August 13, KMC Commissioner Sajjad Hussain Abbasi issued a notification through which medical superintendents and people in-charge of KMC healthcare institutions were directed to stop using half of their department’s revenue - money they collect as ‘user charges’ from people who avail the healthcare facilities which they use to improve patient healthcare.

Earlier, a resolution passed by the city council on February 20, 2007 had allowed the KMC-run healthcare institutions, the in-charge and superintendents to utilise 50 per cent of the user charges for ‘providing better healthcare and in emergencies.’

The same resolution ensured a low user charges at the KMC-run health facilities which were on par with other public health facilities under the provincial government.

The 2007 resolution was also endorsed in 2012 by former KMC administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed, revealed official documents available with The Express Tribune, stating that healthcare institutions, maternity homes and dispensaries of the KMC were not getting regular government funding which forced patients go to poorly maintained hospitals.

“The situation has hardly improved. The Sindh government has not been releasing any funds to the KMC except for salaries,” said Dr Salma Kausar Ali who is the KMC’s senior director for medical and health services. “This is the fourth consecutive year that we have not received fund even to buy medicines.”



Dr Ali defended the notification issued by the commissioner with the approval of KMC Administrator Rauf Akhtar Farooqui. She said that the income would be redistributed properly and the KMC would keep a tally of where the money was going.

The administrator speaks out

While talking to The Express Tribune, KMC Administrator Farooqui said that the real problem was the absence of transparency in how the user charges were being spent.

“Some officials and staff are running their own business at the KMC hospitals,” he claimed. “The revenue generated by KMC (health) establishments should be deposited into the municipality’s central accounts.”

These measures, he added, were being taken to increase KMC’s revenue and were not only being focusing on the health department. According to Farooqui, over 20 other departments of the KMC have been asked to generate more revenue for the municipality and it was unfair of people to create such hue and cry by singling out the health department.

Medical superintendents and those incharge of health institutions were quite startled with the budget expectations which showed a sudden 742% increase in the income from health facilities. They said that the decision to deposit the department’s income to the central accounts was unfair.

Nobody, however, was willing to step forward and speak up for the health institutions they represent. They distanced themselves from what they termed was an “ongoing cold war between two political parties to take off their maximum through Karachi” - the city is an economic battleground for the two rivals who are currently in coalition.

“The plan is clear,” said a KMC hospital official who did not want to be named. “The KMC finance gurus want us to generate Rs465.7 million revenue in the current financial year as compared to the last year’s Rs55.3million by imposing a significant increase of charges on all medical services and then siphon this revenue off.” He added that they seem unable to understand that public health facilities cannot be turned into revenue-generating ventures.

Through another notification, dated August 15, 2014, KMC’s senior director for medical and health services notified medical superintendents and health institution in-charges to implement with immediate effect the revised rate-list for the services they provide. This notification said that the increase in charges had been “approved by the competent authority, i.e. the KMC Administrator, and directed by Karachi Metropolitan Commissioner.”

The revised rate-list, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, revealed an exorbitant increase of the medical charges that a majority of patients would have to bear. For instance, the KMC-run health facilities will now charge Rs3,000 for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as compared to Rs1,500 at the provincial government-run Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2014.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ