IN 1881 in order to provide health facilities to the people of Sindh a latest medical facility was established in the public sector at Hyderabad with the collaboration of the Bombay Faculty of Medicines.

Following independence, in 1953 this hospital was renamed as 'Civil Hospital, Hyderabad'. Later on, after

the establishment of the Liaquat Medical College at Jamshoro, the hospital was attached with as a teaching school.

Until the early 1970s this hospital was in good shape and used to provide adequate health cover to the residents of the Hyderabad city and the rural areas of almost the entire division.

In serious emergency cases, next to Karachi, this was the only hospital which catered to the needs of almost entire Sindh.

The hospital is upgraded recently and is now part of the newly established Liaquat University of Medical Sciences (LUMS) as a teaching facility.

Unfortunately, instead of being improved, the condition of the hospital has so deteriorated that people now prefer private hospitals though they charge unreasonably heavy fees.

The general complaint is that professors/doctors who head various departments have hardly time to see the patients of the hospital as they come after 11 o'clock and leave their rooms by 1.30pm.

They even have no time to visit the general wards to see in what pathetic conditions patients are kept.

Actually the doctors prefer patients to come to their private clinics in the evening although they get non- practising allowances from the government.

The government does not allocate adequate budget for providing free medication to the poor but even these limited funds are squandered in corruption as the medicines purchased by the hospital are generally seen sold in medical stores especially located in the vicinity. Moreover, the hospital lacks hygiene, cleanliness and discipline a prerequisite for healthy atmosphere needed for the patients.

The manifold growth of population and increase in poverty have multiplied diseases as well as the number of patients for which the present ill-maintained and unhygienic health facility at Hyderabad is not only extremely insufficient but more hazardous to their health.

On the top of it, the doctors are more interested in private practice to earn riches which has turned the hospital into a disordered and chaotic place.

The fast deteriorating conditions of the Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, need immediate attention of the provincial health ministry. The government has also to devise some method so that these doctors attend to their duties during the office timings punctually for which they are being paid from the public money.

ZOHAIB AHMED

Hyderabad