Dearth of consultants affects ASH patients’ care

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI- Around half a dozen departments of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), Karachi, are on the verge of closure due to unavailability of senior consultants, it was reliably learnt.

An official of ASH management, who wished not to be quoted, confided that around half a dozen departments of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) health facility have  been facing acute shortage of senior consultants . He said the departments facing acute shortage of senior consultants include Orthopaedic, Plastic Surgery, Burns, Urology, Radiology and Anesthesia.   

In support of his contention that there is an acute shortage of senior consultants in these departments, he said that orthopaedic, plastic surgery and urology patients are being referred to other public or private sector hospitals as only junior doctors are available there.

He also disclosed that several senior doctors belonging to these departments have either quit their jobs or retired.

“Several posts of senior consultants are lying vacant in the hospital and if the KMC fails to hire the services of senior doctors against the vacant posts, the ASH management will have no choice but to close-down these departments,” he warned.

He also deplored that the present KMC administration was taking no interest in resolving the lingering issue.

Meanwhile, KMC Health & Medical Services department’s senior director Dr Salma Kausar Ali said that had there been shortage of senior consultants at the hospital, her office must have received a request in this regard from the ASH management.

She, however, told that a letter has been sent to heads of KMC hospitals with a request not to grant Ex-Pakistan leave to senior doctors willing to spend their summer vacations abroad as the KMC administration did not want patients to suffer in their absence.