State plans on handing over three Karachi hospitals to Sindh Govt

KARACHI: The Federal Government has been planning to hand over the administrative control of three Karachi hospitals to the Sindh Government again, owing to its ongoing financial crises.

The Federal Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Control (MoNHSRC), took administrative control of three major Karachi hospitals including the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), and National Institute of Child Health (NICH), this year in the month of May following an apex court order .

According to a document of the Federal Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Control, the Federal Government has decided to hand over three Karachi healthcare facilities to the Sindh Government and the Shaikh Zayed Medical Institute in Lahore to the Punjab Government due acute financial crises. This decision was taken in the Federal Cabinet meeting recently held in Islamabad.

The MoNHSRC will soon approach the Supreme Court of Pakistan and urge the apex court to review its decision regarding these four healthcare facilities.

Executive Director, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Dr Seemin Jamali, said that no notification regarding the status of JPMC and other two hospitals had been received from the MoNHSRC as yet.

She, however, said that the JPMC management has no issue to work with Sindh Government, but the status of the institution should be cleared as soon as possible to end the uncertainty prevalent in the employed staff. She admitted that the PPP led government provided funds and equipment to the JPMC whenever needed.

People Paramedical Staff, Pakistan, JPMC Unit, also welcomed the decision of the Federal Government to return administrative control of three hospitals to the Sindh Government. They hoped that the PPP led Sindh Government will address the problems of employees in a better way.

The Sindh Government welcomed the Federal Government’s decision concerning the matter.

Sindh Advisor Information, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, welcomed the Federal Government’s decision and said that they already knew that the Federal Government lacked the capacity to run such huge and specialized healthcare facilities.

Earlier, the Federal Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation, and Control had assumed the administrative control of these three hospitals of Karachi along with its components, assets, and staff through a notification issued on May 2019.