By: Kamran Khamiso Khowaja
Thatta: The Sindh government has decided in principle to take back the administrative control of the hospitals of Sindh including 13 hospitals of district Thatta and Sujawal that were under the administrative control of MERF- Medical Emergency resilience foundation.
A four-member committee comprising Director general Health Hyderabad, District health officer Thatta, and two officials of MERF has been formed to submit a report regarding the funds spent for the renovation of hospitals and the staff appointed during the period of last five years.
According to sources the final decision of taking the administrative control back from MERF would be made in the light of the report that would be submitted by the end of this month. The administrative control of the said hospitals was given to an NGO MERF for the term of four years that ended in 2020 and that term was extended for a year.
During five years no substantial development could be made in the hospitals. The dearth of medicine and other consumables, lack of staff, and poor administration were the issues being faced by the hospitals during these five years.
An official of the health department on condition of anonymity told this correspondent that incompetent staff and high-handedness of the Programme Manager of MERF Thatta led to the issues of management in the hospitals. Following the complaints about the poor management and alleged misappropriation of funds, a letter was written by MPA Riaz Hussain Shah Shirazi a few months ago to CM Sindh seeking a probe into the alleged embezzlement of funds. Apropos to that letter a three-member committee led by DR Hameed Sommro was formed to probe into the matter but it brought no results.
