By Sajjad Shah
KARACHI: Vascular surgery services will now be available at Karachi’s trauma center, the Sindh minister for health and population welfare, Dr Azra Pechuho, has said, as the provincial government moves to expand specialist care and tighten controls on hospital medicines.
Speaking at a press conference in Karachi, Pechuho said hospitals were digitizing their medicine supply systems to prevent drugs from being sold outside official channels. She said a digital tracking system had already been launched at Civil Hospital Karachi, allowing medicines to be traced more easily.
The minister said action was also under way against unqualified practitioners, with efforts being made to shut down clinics run by so-called quack doctors.
Pechuho said a stroke unit had been established at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre this year, while the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) now has a separate unit for pregnant women. She said maternal deaths linked to heart attacks had previously been a serious concern.
She added that development work under an earlier scheme at Lyari Medical College had been completed and that robotic surgeries had also been carried out there. A neurosurgery unit has been set up at Civil Hospital Karachi, while the hospital’s master plan is expected to be finalized by January.
According to the minister, Karachi now has 19 chest pain units, and 825 patients have already received treatment at the Baldia center. Pechuho said the health department was working with non-governmental organizations on mental health and that lady health workers had been given specialized training in the field.
She said a new policy for the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) had been finalized, under which around five tutors each year would be sent to private hospitals for further training. These tutors would be awarded master’s degrees at government expense to improve the quality of nursing education. Nursing students, she added, would receive a monthly stipend of Rs30,000.
The minister said an agreement had been signed with Nadra to allow online birth registration for children born at home, an initiative backed by the chief minister. She also spoke about plans for a human milk bank, saying the idea had faced some challenges but stressing that both maternal and child health were equally important. She said the health department had carried out significant work on maternal health this year.
Pechuho urged parents to maintain spacing between births to ensure healthier outcomes for children and confirmed that paramedical staff would be recruited at Jinnah hospital. She said the government aimed to make eight hospitals fully functional this year, adding that PIB hospital was expected to become operational within a month. Plans are also under way to build smaller hospitals in Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Kamal Khan Goth, Ancholi and Saudabad.
