Public health facilities could follow Indus Hospital model to facilitate patients: minister

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho reiterated on Wednesday that the condition of public hospitals in the province, including Karachi, was not satisfactory, but the health department could learn from the experiences of private health facilities like Indus Hospital to facilitate a large number of patients.

“The condition of public hospitals in Sindh is not satisfactory, but we can learn from the experiences of health facilities like Indus Hospital, which are serving a large flow of patients very successfully,” she said while talking to journalists during her visit to Indus Hospital, Karachi.

She said she had learnt a lot about Indus Hospital, which had a paperless environment and catered to the health needs of a large number of patients who thronged the health facility from different areas of Karachi as well as from other parts of Sindh. She added that the Indus model of healthcare could be a solution to the woes of patients in the province.

The minister maintained that hospitals in the province were in dire need of reforms to better serve the masses, private hospitals, especially Indus Hospital, could be a role model for the health department, staff and healthcare providers of the public hospitals.

Responding to a query, she reiterated her stance that anti- rabies vaccine (AVR) should not be given to every person who was bitten by stray dogs due to the problem of its unavailability. Hospitals in Sindh, including Karachi, are facing an acute shortage of anti-rabies vaccine because of strained relations between Pakistan and India, from where it is imported.

“Anti-rabies vaccine is short in the entire world and because of that it is not available in Pakistan these days. We are facing extreme difficulties in acquiring the vaccine, so I would urge hospitals to use their stock of ARV rationally,” said the minister.

According to Pechuho, not every dog that bites a person is rabid, and dogs should be monitored after they attack humans and if they develop signs of rabies infection, only then their victims should be vaccinated. Hundreds of dog-bite cases are daily reported at different hospitals in Karachi and other cities due to a growing population of stray dogs.