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Too many cooks spoil the Sobhraj Maternity Home?

By Irfan Aligi

KARACHI: The Sobhraj Maternity Home (SMH), which has also been declared as a historical building, is in a pitiable state due to different bodies governing its affairs at the same time and paucity of funds; however, a recent development has brought a glimmer of hope for the health facility.

Located near Burns Road, a densely populated and congested residential old area of the city, the SMH was established in the pre-partition era in 1928 and was upgraded in 1975 with an extension to the outpatient department facility.

However, the poor state of the health facility could be attributed to the fact that it has remained under different administrative controls at the same time.

The defunct Karachi Municipal Corporation, the City District Government Karachi Health Group of Offices and the Sindh Council of Unified Group have been claiming the administrative control of the SMH, while the annual CDGK budget for 2009-10 has allocated a very petty amount of funds for it.

The 120-bedded SMH, with around 350 OPDs per day, has an old nursing teaching faculty, which has been upgraded to 18-month course with a main focus on midwifery consisting of a batch of 25 students.

The lack of necessary funds has cause severely hindered the smooth functioning of the SMH. There are 10 incubators in the SMH for the neonates but unfortunately five are out of service due to technical faults there are no funds for their repair.

A major problem at the SMH is that there are only a couple of anesthesiologists available only from 8am to 2pm. The lack of anesthesiologists during other hours is addressed with the help of private anesthesiologists. Patients in need of surgical measures have to pay two different fees i.e. Rs 600 during from 2pm to 8pm and Rs 800 from 8pm to 8am.

Although, the CDGK Health Group of Offices has completed the interviews of doctors, the required number of doctors for the SMH is yet to be approved and budgetary allocations are also yet to be revised.

However, it has been learnt that following the efforts of the SMH Medical Superintendent Dr Anwar Khwaja, the hospital is due to undergo major upgrading with the help of some concerned philanthropists in the city.

The SMH would have a new building covering an area of 45,000 square yards that would be equipped with latest diagnostic tools and machines.

The number of medical consultants would also be increased at the SMH.

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