LARKANA: The scheme for repair and renovation of 65-bed department of urology at the Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH), which had been declared dangerous two years ago, has been put on the back burner, adding to suffering of kidney patients.

The department was shifted to the first floor of the Bibi Aseefa Dental College building last year, except administration offices, which were still working in the dilapidated building. Only 40 beds had been accommodated in the temporary place, which had increased problems for the patients, said sources on Wednesday.

`We face a host of problems after decrease in number of beds as well as operation theaters as only two out of four OTs are now working at the new location,` said Prof Dr Amanullah Abbasi, head of the department of urology.

The then CMCH medical superintendent Dr Ershad Kazmi said that he hadwarned Mr Abbasi in a letter on Aug 6, 2020, to shift to the alternate place as the building had become decrepit and could collapse any moment.

But when the department was shifted to the dental college, the Covid-19 pandemic enveloped the world and the building had to be used for setting up isolation wards for the virus infected patients, said the sources.

A source said the alternate place was itself not in a good condition. `We are running the department in a tightly squeezed place and inconvenient conditions. It is indeed risky to keep patients here for long,` he said.

Current CMCH MS Dr Abdul Sattar Shaikh expressed ignorance of the current situation at the urology department when this reporter approached him with the question and advised to ask the hospital`s planning wing about that.

Officials at the planning wing said that a Rs420 million scheme for renovation and revamping of the existing building of the urology department had been pre-pared and sent to the department of health just three months ago.

The scheme would be vetted and cleared by Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) before its execution, they said.

They said that they were not sure when the turn of this scheme would come and the PDWP would review and give go-ahead to it as the chances of its early clearance were bleak.

Bureaucratic process often went through lengthy processes and took time, they said.

The more it took to approve the scheme the more difficult it would be for the poor kidney patients, who visited this facility from remote areas of Sindh, parts of Punjab and Balochistan.

In medical jargon, Larkana, Dadu and its adjacent parts bordering Balochistan were referred to as `stone belt` because of high incidence of stone formation among population in theseareas,saidthesources.

The doctors at the urology unit noticed that perhaps due to increasing inflation,even white collar families now preferred to visit the government hospital where only the patients from low income groups of society used to come in past.

It had also multiplied load on the department. Instead of injecting huge funds into repair of the building, why not a new scheme for the construction of a bigger building was proposed, said a doctor at the urology department.

In addition, the department faced shortage of sanitary workers and watchmen, which has left costly fittings of air conditioners` outers, electrical appliances and sanitary fittings at the mercy of thieves.

Concerned citizens and social activists urged the health authorities to speed upprocessoftheapprovalof the scheme for repair and renovation of the crumbling edifice.

The feared since the alternate place where the urology unit had been shifted had become too crammed for patients as well as doctors and paramedics, it could lead to some tragic accident.