KARACHI, Sept 18: The Dow University of Health Sciences gets only 35 per cent of its annual expenditures from the federal and provincial government and it meets the remaining 65pc through its own resources, including tuition fees and laboratory charges, said the DUHS vice-chancellor on Tuesday.

Speaking to newsmen after the inauguration of a thoracic surgery department at the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases of DUHS, Prof Masood Hamid Khan, the vice-chancellor, said the annual funds provided by the Sindh government to the university at the time of its establishment to carry out academic activities and also as operational support in regard to its three constituent parts — Dow Medical College, Sindh Medical College and Ojha institute — had increased from Rs300 million to Rs500m in nine years.

He said the Sindh government’s financial allocation for the DUHS for the current financial year was Rs700m, including Rs200m meant for postgraduate doctors’ training programme, while the Higher Education Commission had promised to release Rs315m for the same period.

“We have listed our annual expenditures amounting to Rs2.8 billion and as such about 65pc of that will be met through charges collected against radiological and diagnostic and laboratory services and fees collected from the MBBS and BDS students enrolled at various colleges and institutes of the DUHS,” he said.

Replying to a question, he said patients were charged for laboratory and radiological findings on a no-profit basis. “What we are charging from the public for a standard laboratory or radiology test is about 70pc less than what other big teaching university labs are charging,” he said, adding that being a public sector health education institution the DUHS extended its services to the community.

Prof Khan said the DUHS’s academic, research and other outreach programmes and treatment facilities were cheap and people who could not afford even that much were helped through some other allocations. He said the at present five sample collection points were working under the Dow Diagnostic Research and Reference Laboratory in the city and arrangements were being made to add 20 more such points across the province with the collaboration of private entrepreneurs.

Speaking at the inauguration of the six-bed intensive care unit and a 20- bed ward at the Ojha institute originally known as the TB centre, the vice-chancellor said the DUHS was making efforts for the provision of economical but standard health services to the public. The patients seeking surgery at the thoracic unit would be operated upon free, he said and urged the philanthropists to extend their support to the new facility.

Prof Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, director of the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, said the institute saw about 200,000 patients annually, 10pc of whom needed surgery.

Prof Dr Iftikhar Hussain Rathore, Dr Niaz Hussain Soomro and Ahmed Pirzada also spoke.