Karachi:
Due to its advanced treatment facilities, Karachi is known for attracting patients from all of Sindh and Balochistan. But with only 6,500 beds, 250 fans and a lack of doctors and medical staff, larger hospitals in the city are poorly equipped to handle even the local influx of patients.
Sadia Khatun, who came to Jinnah Hospital for her husband’s gallbladder surgery, was told by the staff that there was no bed available. “I fought tirelessly to secure a bed for my husband, but was not successful. For two weeks I went to the Jinnah Hospital for my husband’s admission, but could not find a bed. Poor patients had to wait endlessly for admission to government hospitals, as they have to have serious difficulty in getting treatment,” Sadia, who eventually had to take out a loan to take a loan.
According to former director Health Karachi Dr. Ikram Sultan resulted in the inaccessibility of treatment facilities at district hospitals in interior Sindh in a huge patient influx of government hospitals. “Jinnah Hospital receives a large number of patients who are not only from Karachi but also from other cities. In addition, the number of beds has not increased for decades, while there is a serious shortage of staff in these hospitals. The government must ensure that the appointment of specialists of various diseases has been reduced,” implored Drult Hunger.
Sources of Express Pakinomist have revealed that 60 percent of beds at Karachi’s district hospitals are occupied. Although these hospitals provide primary health facilities, they are facing a serious lack of paramedic and nursing staff with specialists such as anesthesiologists, nephrologists and lunologists who are not available. This significantly increases the influx of patients at the large tertiary care centers in the provincial capital.
For example, Civil Hospital receives 2,000 patients daily in the accident department, while 8,000 patients visit for examination. The hospital admits 200 patients every day. In response to a question, Dr. Khalid Bukhari, the head of the hospital, an unprecedented increase in the number of patients coming from Sindh and Balochistan. “Because of this, patients in Karachi sometimes have to wait one to two months before they received treatment,” informed Dr. Bukhari.
Similarly, Jinnah Hospital’s spokesman, Jahangir Durrani, informed that most of the ICU units in the hospital were inactive because 50 percent of staff were not available. “ICU technicians are needed to run the equipment. Due to the acute shortage of staff on the ICU units, patients are admitted to only five out of 15 beds in the chest ICU. Similarly, there are 21 beds in the surgical ICU, but patients are only admitted to eight,” Durrani said.
On a similar note, CEO of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto accident and emergency trauma, Dr. Sabir Memon that there were a total of 500 beds in the trauma center, 60 of which were non-functional. Likewise, Sindh Government Liaquatabad Hospital has only 200 beds, four operating theaters and 16 fans, with 75 percent of beds occupied by patients. Not a single CT scan machine is available at the system. Similar lack of beds and medical staff are reported at Lyari General Hospital, Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, Sindh Government Saudabad Hospital, Sindh Government Korangi Hospital and Sindh Government New Karachi Hospital.
To make things worse, Karachi’s largest government hospitals, including Civil Hospital, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (Siut), is the Trauma Center, Services Hospital and Police Surgeon’s office located in a densely populated area of Ma Jinnah Road, where the movement of ambulances is often prevented by heavy traffic.
