Sindh to get control of JPMC, NICVD, NICH for 25 years today

ISLAMABAD: The federal health ministry will formally hand over three tertiary-care hospitals in Karachi to the Sindh government for 25 years on Tuesday (today). The agreement will be signed between the federal and provincial governments in Sukkur.

“Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center [JPMC], National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases [NICVD] and National Institute of Child Health [NICH] would formally be handed over to the Sindh Health Department for 25 years,” Sindh Health Secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shah told The News on Monday. The federal health secretary also confirmed the development.

Although the three hospitals are being run by the provincial health department, they are legally owned by the federal government following the decision of the Supreme Court.

However, both the previous government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the present government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement have not wanted these hospitals to be run by the federal authorities.

Shah said Foreign Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would inaugurate the Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation (SIUT) Medical Complex, a 170-bed facility with 70 dialysis machines, in Sukkur, following which he would oversee the signing of the agreement.

Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho and other officials would also attend the inauguration of a satellite centre of the Sindh Institute of Child Health & Neonatology (SICHN).

Replying to a query, Shah claimed that Sindh had spent over Rs134 billion on running the JPMC, the NICVD and the NICH since they were devolved after the 18th amendment, but at the moment the issue of funds spent on these hospitals by the provincial government would not come into discussion.

He said that although the SC had directed the Centre to return the money the provincial government had spent on running these hospitals while deciding the fate of these facilities, at the moment Sindh is not concerned about the money.

“Sindh spent the funds to run these hospitals for the treatment and welfare of the people of the province as well as of other parts of the country.”

He said the PPP chief would also inaugurate a satellite centre of the SICHN in Sukkur that would cater to the needs of the people of upper Sindh as well as those from the neighbouring South Punjab and Balochistan.

He also said the SICHN is a state-of-the-art health facility with headquarters in Karachi, where a world-class hospital has been serving the people in Korangi district. Now its first satellite centre outside Karachi is being inaugurated, he added.