Public-private model brings about welcome change at North Karachi children’s hospital

When Irfan Ali was asked by doctors at the Sindh Government Children Hospital (SGCH) in North Karachi to take his five-year-old son to the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) or any other private hospital because the public hospital does not offer tertiary care facilities, he refused and insisted he would rather “let his son die here instead of taking him elsewhere”.

“I’m a low wage employee and simply cannot afford to have my child treated at any private hospital. Also, this hospital is being run better than any private hospital in Karachi. It is true; I told them I would rather let my child die rather than take him somewhere else,” Ali told The News on his child’s follow-up visit at the SGCH located near Nagan Chowrangi in North Karachi on Thursday.

Ali is among hundreds of parents who daily bring their ailing children to the health facility, which was renovated and refurbished by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) at a cost of Rs1.7 billion last year and then handed over to the Poverty Eradication Initiative (PEI) by the Sindh government under its Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in September 2016.

“We are now tending to hundreds of patients on a daily basis in the Out-Patient Department (OPD). People from all across Karachi and other far-flung areas are bringing their children here because they trust us to ensure quality care for free,” said Dr Imam Yar Baig, who has been appointed as the health director of the SGCH by the PEI.

“Everything is for free here; even the patient’s food and medicines are provided by the hospital,” he added. As per statistics provided by the PEI, a total of 34,016 patients visited the hospital’s OPD in July 2017 alone, the highest number of patients recorded at the facility since October 2016.

Similarly, as many as 900 patients were also admitted to different wards, ICUs and NICUs while 170 surgeries, both major and minor, were conducted by surgeons at the hospital in July 2017.

“Our OPDs start at 8:00am and continue till 2:30pm. That gives us time to cater to the burgeoning number of visitors and to ensure that a maximum number of children are examined by our consultant pediatricians and have medicines prescribed,” said Dr Baig.

Along with the OPDs, he explained further, patients are brought to the emergency department round-the-clock and the administration shuns the practice of refusing treatment to someone in need.

A visit to the newly-constructed building revealed that the hospital is being maintained and run in a proper manner with due focus on sanitation and patient care. Unfortunately, though, the main access road in front of the hospital has been inundated with sewage for the past several weeks. The management claims that the authorities concerned have failed to act despite repeated requests and reminders.

“We would like to request the mayor and other government officials to kindly have the road cleared at the earliest. The present conditions pose serious health risks to everyone in the area, particularly the ailing minors brought to SGCH,” said Syed Gohar Ali Shah, the PEI’s operations general manager.