The Sindh Cabinet in continuation of the last cabinet meeting discussed and decided on 40 more agenda items and took important decisions including approval of the Medico-legal act, Immunization Act in which denial has been made an offense, also approved water policy and upgraded hospitals.
The meeting was chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at CM House and was attended by provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Advocate General Hassan Akbar, Chairman P&D Hassan Naqvi, PSCM Fayaz Jatoi, and other concerned officers. The Cabinet discussed and decided on nine agenda items for the health department under which important bills were approved and referred to the assembly.
The health department told the cabinet that presently, the Medicolegal Services in Sindh were unorganized with no service structure, job descriptions, SOPs/Guidelines, Performance Management Framework, and Key Performance Indicators. Consequently, the actors of the Criminal Justice System, namely the Police and Judiciary face problems in prosecution and conviction. This has created an urgent demand for substantial changes in the legal framework of Medicolegal Services, for which different forums such as UNWomen, Legal Aid Society, and the Gender Crime and Human Rights Department have raised concerns. Therefore, the health dept has decided to strengthen the Medico-legal system on modern scientific grounds. The objectives of the proposed bill are to regulate the Medicolegal System, including its administration, examinations, and postmortems conducted in the different health facilities of the province through the establishment of the Sindh Medicolegal Directorate.
The Cabinet approved the act and referred to the assembly. . The Cabinet was told that Children of Adam, Karachi and the health dept have requested that cabinet may allocate Rs. 1.967 billion as Grant-in-Aid for five years to establish psychiatric facilities at three government Hospitals – Basic Health Unit Dumba Goth, New Urban Health Center Gadap and New Karachi Urban Health Center Goharabad.
The Cabinet was told that a large segment of the population in the country has suffered from some mental illness. Unfortunately, there was a dearth of psychiatrists and psychiatric hospitals. There are only five major Psychiatric hospitals to cope with major mental health disorders, depression, autism, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder in Pakistan. Hence, considering the issue, Children of Adam signed a MOU with the Sindh Health Department for creating psychiatric facilities at BHU Dumba Goth, New Urban Health Center Gadap, and New Karachi Urban Health Center Goharabad.
The cabinet approved the proposal. Mehar Hospital handed over to GIMS: The provincial cabinet decided to hand over Mehar taluka Hospital to Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences for five years to upgrade the facility and improve its services. Minister Zakat and Ushr Fayaz But told the Cabinet that he had visited taluka hospital Mehar, District Dadu, and found that it required major renovation and necessary medical equipment for its smooth functioning.
Butt and the health department proposed to hand over the taluka Hospital Mehar to Gambat Institute along with a Rs 563 million budget for rehabilitation and renovation of the hospital. The cabinet after discussion decided to hand over the hospital to Gambat Institute for the next 10 years for its smooth functioning for the people of the area. The Cabinet was told that the PPHI has made a request for renewal of MoU between PPHI and Health Dept.
The PPHI was given 1380 Health facilities (HFs) out of which, PPHI took management control of 1242 HFs. The rest 138 HFs were not taken by PPHI due to the non-availability of sufficient funds. At present PPHI is managing 1242 HFs in Sindh. In addition, the Health dept has also handed over 89 HFs to PPHI by signing different addendums to the existing MoU. They include eight HFs of District Larkana; Five HFs of East Karachi; 34 HFs of Malir; 23 Jamshoro and 19 RHCs of various districts. Since the existing MoU of 1242 HFs expires on 5th December 2023, PPHI has now prepared an MoU containing the list of 1331 (1242+89) HFs.
The PPHI has also incorporated administrative and financial aspects of the Accelerated Action Plan (AAP) in the draft MoU.The Cabinet renewed the MOU expiring in December 2023 for another five years and also approved Rs16,906 million.
