Pakistan: Persistent neglect leaves Sindh's healthcare system in crisis

Karachi [Pakistan] November 26 (ANI): Even after more than 70 years of independence, Sindh's public health infrastructure continues to languish in disrepair, exposing deep-rooted governance failures and mismanagement within Pakistan's healthcare system. Primary and secondary hospitals across the province remain deprived of essential diagnostic and emergency facilities, while hundreds of crucial staff positions lie vacant, as reported by The Express Tribune.
According to The Express Tribune, in the year 2000, a government notification had proposed affiliating four district hospitals with Dow Medical College to elevate them to teaching hospital status.
The plan envisioned Dow's faculty extending medical services to patients in district hospitals, ensuring senior professors' involvement in treatment. However, the notification was never implemented, depriving millions of citizens of improved healthcare. As a consequence, district hospitals still conduct only routine tests and basic treatments despite receiving significant annual budgets for medicines from the Sindh government. Vital diagnostic services such as MRI, CT scans, PET-T, and colour Doppler remain unavailable, forcing patients to crowd Karachi's Civil Hospital and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where outpatient departments cater to nearly 6,000 people daily.
Hospitals in New Karachi, Liaquatabad, Korangi, Saudabad, and Ibrahim Hyderi are among those functioning without key medical facilities. Health centres and maternity homes in Karachi's rural districts face a similar crisis, leading to delayed diagnoses and swelling patient loads in tertiary hospitals. Patients, too, narrate distressing experiences. Muhammad Aslam from New Karachi said he was referred to Jinnah Hospital for an MRI but was given a month-long waiting period, forcing him to borrow Rs20,000 for a private scan. Similarly, Aliya from Malir recounted that her sister, battling uterine cancer, had to rely on charity funds for tests due to the unavailability of MRI and biopsy facilities at Saudabad Hospital, as cited by The Express Tribune.
Hospital administrators confirmed the dire situation, despite millions allocated for medicine and equipment, many hospitals lack functioning MRI or CT scan machines. Machinery purchased years ago remains idle, while trauma centres stand unopened due to staff shortages. Sindh's hospital crisis reflects Pakistan's broader healthcare decay, where official apathy, bureaucratic inertia, and corruption continue to cost poor patients their right to basic medical care, as reported by The Express Tribune. (ANI)