JPMC short of life-saving drugs

KARACHI: Patients visiting the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) have been forced to buy life-saving medicines from external sources because of the acute shortage of such drugs at the public sector facility.

As per sources in JPMC, the hospital has been experiencing a deficit of crucial drugs for several months. Besides, they say, oxygen ports in the emergency department of the hospital have also been broken, and there is a conspicuous absence of ECG machines as well.

The sources say there is a massive strain on the JPMC resources, as the facility faces a scarcity of medical personnel, including nursing staff, in the emergency department. With an insufficient ratio of nursing staff to patients, the hospital's emergency ward faces significant challenges in managing the influx of daily visitors.

Refuting these reports, Prof. Dr. Shahid Rasool, the Executive Director of JPMC, claimed that the situation in the hospital's emergency department is marginally better. Acknowledging the hurdles posed by a limited budget, Dr. Rasool emphasized that despite constraints, medical services were provided to approximately 1,300 patients during the five days of Eid. However, he conceded that patient pressure remains high.

Dr. Rasool shed light on the fiscal limitations, stating that the hospital operates on a budget of 12 to 13 billion rupees, allocated in the past based on the hospital's previous capacity of 1,100 beds, whereas currently it comprises some 2,200 beds, which causes issues.