KARACHI/LAHORE: Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho has said that smoking will be banned in hospitals in order to prevent incidents of fire.
Giving a press briefing in Karachi, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said permission has been granted to recruit employees at Jinnah and at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. The SIUT has been expanded further and a children’s ward has been built, she said.
A new OPD block has been constructed at the NICVD, vascular surgery has begun at the trauma centre, and a hybrid operation theatre has also been built at the trauma centre.
The Sindh health minister said improvements are being made at the Infectious Diseases Hospital at NIPA Chowrangi, ambulance emergency services are to be further upgraded, and diagnostic laboratory facilities are also being expanded. The master plan for Civil Hospital has been completed, she said, and construction of the medical block has begun this year.
The provincial health minister said the radiology system is to be outsourced, and the paediatric unit at the NICVD will be made functional shortly.
Dr Pechuho expressed regret over the deaths of children at PIMS hospital. Old hospitals are being surveyed, she said, and electrical lines and breakers are being replaced in older facilities. Firefighting equipment is installed in hospitals, fire drills will be conducted, and a complete ban on smoking will be imposed in hospitals so that the prevention of fire incidents becomes possible.
The fire safety measures described address a specific and well-documented vulnerability. Hospital buildings concentrate several risk factors in one place: ageing electrical infrastructure carrying loads far beyond original design, medical oxygen supply lines that accelerate combustion, and patient populations who cannot self-evacuate. Older facilities constructed decades ago were rarely designed with modern compartmentation, sprinkler coverage or protected escape routes.
The replacement of electrical lines and breakers is the most consequential of the announced measures. Electrical faults are among the leading causes of hospital fires internationally, and circuit protection sized for a building’s original load provides no margin once air conditioning, imaging equipment and monitoring systems have been added over successive decades.
Fire drills address the other half of the problem. Evacuating a ward containing ventilated patients, post-operative cases and neonates requires rehearsed procedures and defined staff responsibilities, since improvisation during an actual incident is not viable.
The institutions referenced form the backbone of Karachi’s public tertiary care network. The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases operates the province’s principal cardiac care system through a network of satellite centres and chest pain units. The Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation is among the largest providers of dialysis and transplant services in the region and delivers care free of charge. Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Civil Hospital function as major teaching and referral hospitals.
The proposal to outsource radiology reflects an approach applied in several provinces, under which diagnostic services are operated through contracted providers while remaining free or subsidised at the point of use. The model is intended to address equipment downtime and staffing shortages, though its performance depends heavily on contract design and monitoring.
Recruitment authorisation at Jinnah and the NICVD addresses staffing, which remains among the binding constraints on the expansion of public sector service delivery.
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