KARACHI.(Online): Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that he has special affiliation with Malir district because it was created by his leader Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.
“Our government would provide you all the facilities, including roads, good educational institutions, health facilities, water supply and you have to promise to look-after all the institutions being provided to you for the care of your families.”
This he said while addressing a gathering organized to inaugurate a hospital at established in Public Private Partnership (PPP) with HANDS at Memon Goth Malir. He was accompanied by provincial ministers, DrSikandarMendhro, Jam Khan Shoro, ImdadPitafi, MNA Hakeem Baloch, MPA SajidJokhio, former advisor to CM Haji MuzafarShujrah and others.
He said that the Sindh government had started Public Private Partnership (PPP) unit in Finance department to start different projects with private sector. “This partnership is not meant for making money or earning profits but this for best service delivery to the people of the province and enhance the working capacity and performance of the government,” he said.
Syed Murad Ali Shah said that access to quality health care represents a challenge for his government, particularly for marginalized and disadvantaged population where 20 percent live more than 10 kilometers from a basic health facility and 46 percent live more than 10 kilometers from a rural health center. One in 10 children does not survive to their fifth birthday and roughly one in 89 women die of maternal causes, he added.
He said that his government was striving hard to improve health facilities by outsourcing management of primary health care facilities. “The Sindh government and HANDS have joined hands through Public Private Partnership to run 38 health facilities, including two Sindh government hospitals, 100-beded and 50-beded respectively, two rural centers and fourteen dispensaries,” he said and added that handing over of administration of hospitals to HANDS have been issued on November 1, 2016.
The chief minister said that the HANDS just after taking over 38 health facilities in Malir conducted a survey and found that the overall attendance of the doctors and other staff was 36.6 percent against the 568 filled positions. They found that there was no neonatal or operation theaters exists in these facilities. Only eight health facilities had power connection, six have piped water supply, two have gas connection, one has telephone line, one facility has generator, nearly half of facilities don’t have boundary wall.
He said that government hospital MuradMemon Goth has become a success story of public private partnership in Malir district. “This hospital was established about 22 years ago by then chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah as rural health center and its SNE was also approved about 12 years ago as Sindh government 50-beded hospital but it never functional hospital and only its OPD remained functional during the said period,” he lamented.
Earlier, the chief minister inaugurated 36-beded hospital at Asoo Goth. This hospital has been upgraded as a general hospital with different wards like burns, gynee, maternity and others. This hospital has been constructed at a cost of Rs80 million.
The chief minister also announced at Memon Goth to construct double road from Malir 15 upto Super Highway, covering all the villages of the area. “On your [people of the area] demand I am also announcing to provide you a major water supply scheme,” he said.
The chief minister also visited senior PPP leader Jam Bijjar to inquire about his health.
The chief minister who started his whirl-wind tour from Malir 15 concluded it at Dumba Goth where he visited under construction Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Rehabilitation Center for Burns & Rape Survivors.
He said that the center would be an-state-of art health facility established on the brink of Motorway and close to more than 50 villages located on the both side of the road (old Super Highway).
The chief minister on the conclusion of his visit at Duma Goth assured the people of Malir that he would visit them shortly to solve their other problems.
