Row over hospitals' control as cases spike.

ISLAMABAD -- While coronavirus cases have increased by more than 100,000 in the past three weeks with many patients being 'denied' of treatment due to lack of facilities, the Centre's sudden change of mind after a year to take over three major hospitals of Sindh has stirred a controversy over their control and funding, which may further affect the fight against the pandemic.

Over the past 24 hours, the novel coronavirus claimed at least 141 lives and affected 5,948 more people, taking the death toll to 3,436 and the national tally of cases to 174,676.

In response to the last week's letter of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) asking the Sindh government to hand over the possession/control of the three major hospitals, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho has requested the federal government to withdraw its letter and work with the provincial government to focus on Covid-19.

She informed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza that the provincial government had allocated Rs16.2 billion in the budget for the three hospitals, which was far more than the federal government's allocation of Rs9.9 billion for the hospitals, while the Centre's allocation was even less than the total allocation for these hospitals in the last financial year.

However, Dr Mirza said, the federal government had to take over the hospitals on the Supreme Court orders of last year. He said over Rs14bn was allocated for the hospitals, which would be controlled and run by the federal government.

Sindh requests Centre to focus on Covid-19 instead of taking over state-of-the-art hospitals

The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in Karachi and Sheikh Zayed Postgraduate Medical Institute in Lahore were devolved to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

In January 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to take control of the hospitals. However, the federal cabinet in July 2019 decided not to take over the hospitals from provincial government.

Dr Pechuho in her reply to Dr Mirza reminded him that according to the Supreme Court order, the federal government had to reimburse the amount spent by the provincial government from 2011 till date. Yet she urged the federal government to withdraw its letter and direct its efforts towards the fight against coronavirus to provide relief to the people.

'It is...