JPMC Faces Lack of Technicians: Functioning with Half Employee Strength

KARACHI- The administrative functionality of Karachi’s largest tertiary care hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), has been compromised as many sanctioned posts for technicians are still lying vacant.

Out of a total of 211 technician posts, 104 posts are unoccupied at JPMC since last several years. For the post of Principal technicians in Grade 17, around 21 posts are still lying vacant. For Grade 16, out of 32 approved posts, 10 are un attended. For the post of Senior technicians in Grade 14, 14 posts are lying vacant. 20 posts of technicians in grade-12 are lying vacant out of a total of 42 approved seats. Around 45 sanctioned posts of junior technicians in grade-9 out of a total of 89 are lying vacant. This major shortage of technical staff has badly affected the operations of the health facility.

Similarly, about 700 posts of non-technical and support staff from grade-1 to grade-15 are also lying vacant since several years. 

An administrative official of JPMC stated that, there are approximately 2600 posts available for employees, including professors, assistant professors, resident medical officers, doctors, paramedics, nurses, administrative staff and other categories, out of which 1000 are lying vacant in the hospital from the last several years, and the concerned authorities didn’t find placements for all these posts. 

Executive Director, JPMC, Dr. Seemin Jamali,  added that, the status of the hospital is still not decided; therefore, no new hiring has been done within the health facility, since the past couple of years. She also remarked that the hospital administration is striving hard to improve patient care in the available resources.