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Dr Rab opens labour ward in LMC hospital

RECORDER REPORT

HYDERABAD: Sindh Health Minister Prof Dr S.M. Rab here on Tuesday inaugurated Labour Ward comprising pre-labour room, labour room, eclampsia room, neonate nursery and operation theater and a post-graduate library within the premises of LMC Hospital, city branch.

Health Secretary Rukhsana Saleem, LMCH Medical Superintendent Prof. Akbar Haider Soomro, Sindh health services, director general, Mohammad Ishaq Memon, LMC principal Prof. Jan Mohammad Memon, faculty members and senior doctors were also present on the occasion.

The minister and the secretary also planted saplings in the hospital. Briefing newsmen Dr Rab said that the construction of an ultra-modern labour ward and library for post-graduate students and doctors were great landmarks in the history of the LMC hospital.

Referring to the development in the field of health care, the minister said that small pox which once was considered a fatal disease has been completely eradicated and added that with the co-operation of the Unicef and WHO, polio would be eradicated by the end of the current year.

He said controlling hepatitis was extremely costly and the government had only been able to immunise doctors and nurses who have to deal with such patients every day.

He said extensive programmes had also been launched to eradicate TB and Malaria.

The health minister expected that the Taluka hospitals such as Bhitai, Qasimabad and Kotri would also be brought under the umbrella of the LMC so that specialised services could be made available to the patients and added that this measure would also go a long way in training the doctors.

Referring to medical education, Prof. Rab said that the public should have confidence that an MBBS was a real MBBS and an MD (Doctor of Medicine) was a real specialist.

He observed that the co-operation and the devotion of the teachers, students and parents were the sine quo non for improving the quality of medical education.

He was all praise for the doctors and para medical staff of LMCH and said that they had performed well during emergency especially following the bomb blasts here.

He said the volume of patients had also increased by 25 percent.

Dr Rab said that two Intensive Care units each costing Rs 15 million were being installed at the city and Jamshoro branches of the hospital and the post graduate building would be ready very soon.

He said the proposal to upgrade LMC into a medical university was under the active consideration of the government and a decision to this effect would be taken very soon. He said some complaints had been received about the absence of professors but hastened to add that they were attending to their duties regularly.

The ministry said in all the medico-legal cases relating to murders, etc., the work would be made transparent and the complaints about injury certificates would be completely eliminated.

Answering a question about contract doctors, the director general health said that posting orders had been issued to 1,140 doctors, 26 doctors had come late, the names of 24 doctors were not available on the list and 18 doctors had not yet deposited their documents.

The health minister while responding to another question said that a committee had been appointed to make necessary recommendations about the pending salaries of the contract doctors.

He however made it clear that although the present government had considered the case of the contract doctors on humanitarian grounds "there was a difference between a contract and a career".