Health minister bans out-of-country leaves for doctors

Karachi
In an apparent bid to alleviate the acute shortage of doctors in public hospitals in the province, Sindh Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar on Wednesday slapped a ban on out-of-country leaves for doctors working in government health facilities in Karachi and rest of the province.
The health minister issued these directives after learning about the shortage of doctors at the Lyari General Hospital and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical College during a meeting at his office.
Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, the younger daughter of former president and the co-chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari, had visited the medical college and hospital in Lyari last week where she was informed about the shortage of staff including doctors and paramedics, besides several other issues of the institutions.
The minister was irked over the shortage of staff, especially doctors at the Lyari General Hospital, when he was informed that several doctors had gone abroad on leave. He immediately asked the health secretary Saeed Magnejo to place a ban on out-of-country leaves for doctors working at public health institutes.
“Public hospitals in Sindh already face a shortage of doctors and despite this the doctors posted at public hospitals are going abroad on leave,” exclaimed the minister. “This is making the situation worse. There should be an immediate ban on doctors serving at public hospitals to go abroad on leave.”
Though the health officials did not have accurate information about how many doctors had gone abroad for leave, but they claimed that collection of information had begun after these orders from the minister.
Jam Mehtab Dahar vowed to turn Lyari medical college and hospital into a state-of-the-art teaching institutes and said all material and human resources would be provided for this purpose.
“However, the administrations of both Lyari medical college and general hospital should also ensure that the staff, including doctors and paramedics, is regular and punctual,” he said.
He said the college and hospital had been established under a vision to provide quality medical education and health facilities to the under-privileged areas of the city. He declared that no one would be allowed to create hurdles in functioning of both the institutions.
Referring to the nursing institutes of the province and especially those in Karachi, the minister also expressed his ire over extra admissions at few of the facilities, saying that steps like these were resulting in jeopardizing the quality of professional training and education. He called for establishing a monitoring system to check the process of admissions at educational institutes.
Officials who attended the meeting included health secretary Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo and Prof Dr Anjum, the principal of Lyari Medical College.