KARACHI: The Sindh legislature was told on Wednesday that the province was seriously deficient in the mechanism that could help the provincial government control the sale of fake medicines.

Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro stated during the assembly session’s Question Hour that the health ministry was lacking the required number of drug inspectors to cover the entire province.

Lawmaker Naila Munir had asked about some 14 posts of drug inspectors lying vacant for want of recruitment for which requisition had been sent to the Sindh Public Service Commission Hyderabad.

“As a stopgap arrangement and in order to keep continuous vigilant eye on sale of spurious or substandard medicines the charges of vacant posts have been assigned to drug inspectors working in adjacent districts,” said the minister.

Not enough drug inspectors in province, says minister

He added that the Drug Testing Laboratory Sindh (DTLS) had been shifted to a newly-constructed building situated in Old I&I Depot Karachi and huge budget for analytical machines, equipment and chemicals etc had been allocated or granted to the DTLS.

“Soon, the laboratory will be able to analyse more samples with greater accuracy and precision and declare the results accordingly, which is a mandatory requirement for filing the case against a culprit,” said Dr Mandhro.

He added eventually, it would help curb the menace of fake and substandard medicines.

“This is the domain of the Provincial Quality Control Board (PQCB) Sindh to examine the cases of confiscation of drugs and other related issues and decide for lodging FIRs, filing in the court of law etc.”

However, he said, the PQCB had been practically non-functional due to non-posting of its secretary. The officer had been posted now and was conducting meetings on regular basis, “which will also help to control the sale of fake medicines”. The health minister further informed the house that in addition to that some 28 cases of seizure of spurious or substandard or unregistered drugs had been registered from January to October 2017.

“Against such cases 15 FIRs have been lodged, 72 prosecutions are in the court of law, while a fine of Rs1.5 million was imposed during the stated period.”

Replying to another question asked by Khurram Sher Zaman, Dr Mandhro said the health ministry had plans to improve governance and management of all public healthcare facilities across the province.

He said the ministry had successfully developed management information system (MIS) of the priority programmes pertaining to maternal, neonatal and child healthcare; tuberculosis control, malaria control, National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare; and District Health Information System (DHIS), which was helping in monitoring the performance of those programmes for taking timely action and corrective measures.

Besides, he added, the mechanism for the programmes on hepatitis, HIV-AIDS and dengue was under process to bring them online.

“To get further improvement in governance, the health ministry has contracted out its various health facilities under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. For provision of better ambulance services the districts of Thatta and Sujawal have also been contracted out under the PPP mode.”

Hepatitis C patients

To a question asked by Naila Munir, Dr Mandhro said a total of 32,382 patients of hepatitis C were documented from June 2014 to June 2015. Most of them (6,422) belonged to Karachi division, followed by Khairpur (2,542), Hyderabad (2,467) and Ghotki (2,449). Some 2,222 patients hailed from Sanghar and 2,121 patients belonged to Larkana district.

Tharparkar district registered the least number of patients (114) followed by the neighbouring district of Umerkot (324) and Matiari (374).

To a question asked by Rana Ansar, the minister said a dozen new hospitals were established in Karachi and a number of others in other districts of Sindh during 2014-15 fiscal.

He said in Karachi the Children’s Hospital was established at the cost of Rs577m under revenue component in SIUT, basic health units at Shah Faisal Colony and Korangi at the cost of Rs30m and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Rehabilitation Centre for burns and rape victims in Old Thana, Malir.

Moreover, he added, development schemes for establishment of various hospitals stood continued during 2014-15 as well as up till now.

They included establishment of 400-bedded hospital at Nipa Chowrangi, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical Complex at Bin Qasim, 200-bedded hospital at Mominabad, 100-bedded hospital at PIB Colony, Benazir Bhutto 100-bedded hospital Jungle Shah Keamari, Cardiac Emergency Centre at Baldia, 50-bedded hospital at Gulistan-i-Jauhar and FB Area and Accident Emergency or Trauma and Cardiac Emergency Centre at New Karachi.

A basic health unit at Phulji in Benazirabad, a BHU at Mureed Shaikh village in Ghotki, two rural health centres and as many dispensaries in Badin district were established during the same period. Besides, the Jacobabad Institute of Medical Science was established at the cost of Rs478.265m while a mother and child health centre was established at Bahadurpur village in Jacobabad costing Rs60m.

To questions asked by Khairunnisa Mughal vis-à-vis the health facilities in Mirpurkhas district, the minister said a nursery for pre-term babies was functioning at the Mirpurkhas Civil Hospital.

He also gave details about the number of doctors working at the same hospital, conceding that there was a deficiency of doctors in all the district hospitals of the province.

However, he added, with the fresh recruitment of 5,000 doctors and 400 specialists, most hospitals were being offered to fill the longstanding vacant seats.

“This will certainly improve our health delivery system,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2018