KARACHI, Sept 20: Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad has underlined the imperative need for making the healthcare facilities more efficient and easily accessible to public in view of ever increasing population congestion in Karachi.

He stated this while speaking at the inauguration of trauma centre of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital equipped with modern facilities on Wednesday. The newly established trauma centre at the hospital is the biggest in Sindh. It has been established at a cost of Rs218 million. The trauma centre has 25 beds, 14 ventilators and three operation theatres.

The governor said that websites would be developed for every town of the metropolis providing details of performance of the health sector and availability of medical facilities in each town.

He directed the city government to set up medical satellite units attached with Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in all 18 towns so that all such patients who wished to get admission in the hospital could be provided with timely information and better medical facilities.

He said that the condition of the hospital turned miserable in the past where neither medicines nor doctors used to be available.

He pointed out that the hospital from management point of view had been in a state of disarray.

However, he said, City Nazim Mustafa Kamal and his team gave a state-of-the-art shape to this hospital. He further said that the provision of most modern facilities at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital at present was a great example of public-private partnership.

Ishratul Ibad said that the hospital was providing best possible medical service to people with upgraded wards achieved through day and night efforts by doctors and it would be expanded very soon under a comprehensive plan to be implemented with the cooperation of federal and provincial governments.

He recalled that the hospital used to provide house-job facility to the students of Karachi Medical and Dental College, which was done away with due to non-availability of required facilities at the hospital. However, he said that the hospital had been upgraded with all the capacity to fulfil the requirements of KMDC, which would soon be upgraded to university level.

Later, the governor went round various sections and departments of the hospital and appreciated their standard. City Nazim Mustafa Kamal conducted the visit of the governor through all departments and briefed him about the availability of medical facilities and management performance.

The governor was informed that attendance of medical and paramedical staff on paper had been discontinued with the installation of palm impression machine. The nazim told the governor that now the arrival and departure of all the employees would be noted through the palm impression machine and their salaries would be paid accordingly.

He was informed that the record of patients had also been computerised. Through MIS technology, complete medical history of patients along with medical examination and prescription of medicines by doctors was being recorded.

Besides, the governor was informed that with the cooperation of pharmaceutical companies, drugs were supplied to hospital in specific coloured packing which had helped in checking their leakage and misappropriation, making their sale in market impossible.

The inaugural ceremony was attended, among others, by Provincial Planning and Development Minister Shoaib Bukhari, Local Government Adviser Waseem Akhtar, Naib Naim Karachi Nasreen Jalil, MNAs, MPAs, Liaquatabad Town Nazim Osama Qadri, other nazims, industrialists and businessmen.

The governor congratulated the city nazim and his team for modernizing the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.—APP