Dr Azra blames Central Procurement Committee for shortage of medicines at public hospitals

Conceding that patients are suffering due to unavailability of medicines at the public health facilities in the province, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho has blamed the Central Procurement Committee, which was formed on court orders, for the delay in the purchase of medicines and medical supplies for the hospitals, and vowed to improve the system in the next fiscal year.

“It is very disappointing and sad that patients are being asked to purchase medicines and syringes from their own pockets because the Pakistan Peoples Party has a commitment with the people that its government will take care of their health needs. The delay in procurement of medicines is hitting poor people, which is very sad and disappointing,” Dr Azra said as The News had an exclusive talk with her on Wednesday.

Hundreds of surgeries were being postponed on a daily basis as public hospitals and health facilities across Karachi as well as in the rest of Sindh were facing a serious crisis of medicines, surgical tools and other medical supplies, the health minister said, adding that due to this crisis, patients at the government hospitals, a majority of whom could not afford the cost of treatment at private hospitals, were being asked to purchase essential medicines, surgical instruments and other supplies from private medical stores and pharmacies.

Blaming the crisis on the inexperience of the head of the Central Procurement Committee, she said when the health department procured medicines and medical supplies, the public hospitals got them at the start of every fiscal year but since the recent formation of the procurement committee on court directives, the procurement of medicines could not be effectively made as the acting chief and other members of the committee were not experienced.

When asked what had made courts intervene in the procurement of medicines, she said when the medical superintendents of the public hospitals were entrusted with the purchase of medicines and medical equipment, there were complaints that they filled the stores of their hospitals with unwanted, substandard and short expiry medicines, owing to which, the judiciary intervened and the system of centralised procurement through a central committee was put in place.

“From the next fiscal year, there would be no such hitches as we would start the process of the procurement of medicines from the last quarter of the current [fiscal] year. By the start of the first quarter of the next [fiscal] year, all the required medicines and supplies would be available at the hospitals,” the health minister assured.

Another burns centre

Dr Azra said as trained doctors and paramedics were not available to run burns centres or wards in the province, the government was not able to establish such centres or wards for the treatment of patients with burn injuries. Currently, there are only two government facilities offering treatment to the patients of burn injuries – the Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi and the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) Khairpur.

“Treatment of burn injuries is a very specialised field and we lack trained and qualified doctors in this area. We had trained many doctors to start working at the burns centres to be established at different hospitals in Karachi and the rest of Sindh but they refused to work. Without doctors, wards and centres for the treatment of burn injuries cannot function,” she remarked.

The health minister, however, vowed to establish at least one more burns centre somewhere in Karachi as the only burns centre at Civil Hospital remains filled to capacity. For that, she said, she was to start searching for a suitable place in the city.

Trauma Centre at CHK

The sorry state of affairs at the Trauma Centre at the Civil Hospital recently came to the fore when a retired medical professor, Prof Dr Saeed Minhas, was shifted there after he was seriously injured in a road accident. After he was admitted to the facility, his family came to know that the CT scan machine at the centre was dysfunctional due to which the extent of his brain injuries could not be ascertained.

Commenting on this, Dr Azra said the Civil Hospital medical superintendent and the management of the Trauma Centre were responsible for the state of machines at the health facilities. She added that the trauma centre was functioning without a permanent executive director and they were looking for a suitable person who could run the facility in a professional manner.

“I don’t know if the CT scan and MRI machines are not functioning at CHK and Trauma Centre but the management of these health facilities should take care of the equipment and let us as well as the vendor know about any problem so that the equipment could be repaired,” she observed and added that she was not informed by any person if the MRI and CT scanners at the two very important health facilities were not functioning properly.

Federal takeover

Responding to a query about the expected takeover of three key health facilities of Karachi – the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and the National Institute of Child Health – the health minister said if the Centre wanted to manage these hospitals, it should continue allocating as much funds to them as what the Sindh government has been providing to them, or else there would be a disaster which would cause suffering to not only the people of Karachi, but also of the entire Sindh.

“We have filed a review petition with the Supreme Court of Pakistan but if the court asks the federal government to take over these health facilities, they can do so but they should allocate as many funds as we are spending on these facilities,” she said, adding that if the federal government would not allocate funds for these facilities in the coming budget, the Sindh government would continue to run them with its own resources.

Replying to another query, Dr Azra, who also holds the portfolio of the population welfare department, said the government had procured 26,000 ‘emergency contraceptives’ that would be supplied to the health facilities very soon.