Seeing five children on one bed at NICH makes president Dr Alvi sick at heart

President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi was “saddened to see four to five children being treated on one bed” at a time during his Monday’s visit to the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in Karachi.

“The hospital [NICH] has a dearth of space; there is an urgent need for the expansion of this health facility,” said Dr Alvi. He urged the philanthropists to come forward and support the children hospital the way they were providing help to other health facilities in the metropolitan city.

Accompanied by his wife Samina Alvi and NICH director Prof Jamal Raza, the president visited various wards and spoke to mothers whose children were undergoing treatment at the health facility.

Dr Alvi assured the attendants and the hospital staff that the federal government would resolve their issues and improve the conditions at the health facility. Talking to the media, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan had asked him to visit the hospital following the recent fire incident in which a four-day-old girl was burnt alive in an incubator.

The president said one key purpose of his visit was to assess the services available at the health facility and to ascertain how the hospital’s condition could be improved.

On the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he said, three health facilities – namely the NICH, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) – were being taken over by the federal government. Soon, he added, the federal health authorities would be looking after their affairs.

The president said he had also looked into the possibility of the NICH’s expansion. He, however, added that the existing building could not be expanded since “there is no space available in the vicinity of the hospital to establish new wards”.

Dr Alvi said the availability of “even a small piece of land” could make it possible to establish “a vertical tower”. He praised philanthropists for supporting the JPMC and the NICVD. The present, however, urged them to show generosity for the NICH too.

Dr Alvi also paid a visit to the NICVD where he was welcomed by the hospital’s executive director Prof Nadeem Qamar, chief operating officer Azra Maqsood, administrator Dr Malik Hameedullah and management consultant Haider Awan.

President Alvi visited various departments of the hospital and spoke to patients and their attendants. He lauded the cardiac-care services being provided to the patients who come from across the country.

Prof Nadeem Qamar briefed the president on the performance of the NICVD, saying it was “the only facility in Pakistan where free of charge health services are being provided to the patients.”

He said that “not a single penny is charged from the patients” for all types of surgeries, interventions, diagnostics and provision of medicines. The president was informed that the NICVD had been transformed into a network of cardiac-care hospitals which were spread over the entire province of Sind – from Sukkur to Karachi.

He said the hospital was also linked with over a dozen Chest Pain Units “which are saving thousands of lives of people who need immediate help in case of heart attacks”. President Alvi lauded the services of the NICVD management in the provision of the healthcare facilities to people. He assured the hospital management that the service delivery would not be affected after the takeover of these health facilities by the federal government.