Fourteen years after construction began on a much-needed trauma centre at the Lyari General Hospital (LGH), the facility remains non-functional, depriving thousands of residents of one of Karachi’s most impoverished areas of emergency medical care.
Launched in 2011 with an initial allocation of Rs500 million, the project envisioned a 25-bed trauma facility to serve emergency cases from Lyari, and the Lyari Expressway and Hawkesbay areas.
Although the building was completed in 2019, and essential medical equipment, including CT scan, MRI and X-ray machines, was reportedly procured, the trauma centre has never been made operational.
According to Lyari-based social worker and former MPA Syed Abdul Rasheed, while advanced diagnostic machinery was indeed purchased, it was later relocated to the LGH during the Covid-19 pandemic by the then Lyari Medical College principal Dr Anjum Rehman. He claimed that the current whereabouts of the equipment is unknown.
The situation is compounded by the deteriorating condition of the LGH itself. The emergency ward is in poor shape, sanitation is severely lacking and patients often struggle to receive even the most basic treatment.
A recent tragedy starkly underscored the consequences of the inactive trauma centre. When a residential building collapsed in Lyari’s Baghdadi area, 27 people lost their lives and 10 others were seriously injured.
Despite the trauma centre being located just a few streets away, victims had to be transported to the Benazir Bhutto Trauma Centre situated farther across the city, significantly delaying emergency care.
Former LGH medical superintendent Dr Khadim Hussain Bukhari said the trauma centre was his brainchild. He noted that the original design included a rooftop helipad for emergency airlifts, a feature that was never realised. Expressing deep regret, he said the project, though completed structurally, has never been brought into service.
Ex-MPA Rasheed levelled serious allegations against provincial authorities. He claimed that after years of struggle, the project was finally completed in 2019, but the Sindh government has failed to operationalise it.
He also alleged corruption and irregularities in construction, saying that the final building was 24 square yards smaller than approved, the lift dimensions were reduced from 6ft by 8ft to 6ft by 4ft, and the front elevation was downsized by 64 per cent.
He demanded immediate action to make the trauma centre functional, and called for accountability of those responsible for the prolonged delay and alleged mismanagement. “The people of Lyari have waited long enough. They deserve access to quality emergency care. Had the trauma centre been active, lives could have been saved.”