Karachi
Hameeda Begum had to walk several metres along the Rafiqui Shaheed Road while carrying her six-year-old son in her arms to be able to reach the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) from the Askari-III turning, as the city’s traffic authorities closed off access to four major hospitals of the city from Cantt Station and Kaala Pul, turning the Rafiqui Shaheed Road into a one-way street.
“I was in a rickshaw to take my son to Jinnah hospital from the Cantt Station when traffic policemen stopped us at the turning near Rafiqui Shaheed Road, saying the road was closed and had become a one-way thoroughfare since Monday,” she said. “They said vehicles could now only move towards NICH and JPMC from Shahrea Faisal Faisal or from Lucky Star via the bridge on Sharea Faisal. I had no other option left other than carrying my son in my arms to reach the hospital.”
Since Monday, when the city administration turned the Rafiqui Shaheed Road into a one-way thoroughfare, hundreds of patients in private vehicles and ambulances coming from Clifton, DHA, Gizri, Punjab Colony, Akhtar Colony and Manzoor Colony, via the Kaala Pul have been asked to turn back by the traffic police, with directions to either use the Sharea Faisal or go to Saddar to access the Rafiqui Shaheed Road to reach the four hospitals situated in that vicinity — the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), National Institute of Child Health, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and the Kidney Centre.
The Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) is also situated on the same road, visited by thousands of people every day who need urgent or routine medical attention at any of these health facilities.
Hundreds of vehicles with patients including those who with heart problems, gunshot injuries, children needing urgent medical care and others requiring dialysis were asked to turn back by the traffic police when they tried to reach the hospitals from the Cantt Station.
The doctors and paramedics at all the four public hospitals also had a rough day on Monday and Tuesday after patients and their attendants used extremely abusive language against them for being denied access to hospitals from one side of the city.
“I was busy seeing patients in the Jinnah hospital’s emergency department when attendants of a patient with gunshot wounds used very abusive language towards me and scolded me for closing to road coming here from Cantt Station,” said a postgraduate medical officer, requesting anonymity. “They said the traffic police told them that the road had been turned into a one-way street on the request of doctors and hospital administrations.”
Hospital administrations
The Rafiqui Shaheed Road has been turned into a one-way thoroughfare on the request of medical directors of the hospitals and directives of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, with reason that it would ease traffic flow on the road and help in easing access to the health facilities, DIG Traffic Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh told The News.
He said Deputy Commissioner South Saleem Rajput had been appointed as the project incharge for this “experiment” of making the Sarfaraz Rafiqui Shaheed Road a one-way street. “He had coordinated with all the stakeholders and taken them in confidence before implementing the chief minister’s directives,” he said.
“In my opinion, traffic congestion on this road is caused by heavy traffic and parking of a large number of private ambulances in front of hospitals, besides the encroachment. If these impediments are removed then the traffic bottleneck on this road can be avoided,” he said.
Dr Amir Shaikh said the move was “experimental” and if it created problems for the people to access the four major hospitals, then city hospitals was creating problems for people, the decision could be reversed.
“I will hold a review meeting with all stakeholders on Wednesday,” he said. “If it appears that this decision is causing problems for the people, especially patients and their attendants, I would recommend for reversing the decision.”
However, Deputy Commissioner South Saleem Rajput backed the decision taken on the directives of the chief minister, saying the request came from the medical directors of the four public hospitals. He said it was a “good” decision and claimed it would help transporting patients to any of the four hospitals more easily than before.
“By turning the Rafiqui Shaheed Road into a one-way street, we have been able to turn Sharea Faisal to almost a signal-free corridor at the Regent Plaza, where commuters remained stuck every day for at least two hours,” he said.
“Now ambulances coming towards any of these hospitals via Sharea Faisal can reach their desired health facility more easily.”
Similarly, he said, patients and their relatives could reach the health facilities from Lucky Star via the bridge on Sharea Faisal since there would be no traffic congestion in front of the hospitals.
Answering a question, he said the decision to close the Sarfaraz Rafiqui Shaheed Road from one end was taken after consulting all stakeholders and expressed the hope that once people are used to the new route, the road can be made wider by removing dividers and electricity poles.
He, however, promised to talk to the traffic police for allowing ambulances and patients needing urgent medical attention to come to the hospital even from the turning of Askari III, saying ambulances and emergency vehicles could use any route to reach hospitals.