No medicines at Sindh govt hospitals for months

SUKKUR: The Sindh health department for the last four months is not providing critical medicines and surgical equipment to its hospitals to the dismay of patients.

According to several medical superintendents of public sector hospitals, the centralized procurement committee has not procured medicines for the last four months and the hospitals have run out of their stocks of the much-needed medicines of daily use. They said the procurement committees did not even hold meetings for acquiring medicines and other required medical and surgical equipment and items for the hospitals.

In the past, the Sindh government would release budgets to the hospital administrations who in turn would acquire the medicines according to their requirements. But, the provincial government opted for a centralized purchase mechanism for greater transparency.

In a related development, the ultrasound machine at the Khairpur Medical Teaching Hospital is lying out of order for the last six months and the health department is not paying any heed multiplying problems for the patients. The hospital administration had solicited the help of secretary health and DC Khairpur about the problem issue but nothing had happened despite passage of six months.

It is strange that it is taking so long for fixing the ultrasound machine. The Khairpur Medical Teaching Hospital caters to a very large number of patients from the neighbouring eight talukas including Nara, Kingri, Gambat, Sobhodero, Thari Mirwah, Faiz Gunj.