Sindh plans to hire 2,200 doctors to fight Covid-19.

KARACH -- The Sindh government on Monday announced its plan to recruit 2,200 doctors in a move to bridge the widening gap emerging due to the growing number of coronavirus cases in the province after a larger number of health workers fell victim to Covid-19.

The decision came during a meeting jointly chaired by Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah and Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho. A statement said the meeting was also attended by the secretary finance Syed Hassan Naqvi, secretary health Kazim Jatoi, Vice Chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences Prof Dr Muhammad Saeed Qureshi and other senior officials.

'The chief secretary directed the secretary health to move a summary to Sindh Public Service Commission for the recruitment of 2,200 doctors,' it said.

'The chief secretary Sindh also directed him to write to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to increase the number of technician seats in the medical universities and colleges of the province.'

The meeting, it said, discussed various issues of the health department, including release of salaries of newly appointed medical officers, staff nurses, lab technologist and technicians; release of funds for the Child Life Foundation, the Trauma Centre, medical universities; recruitment of new doctors and expansion of high dependency unit (HDUs) and intensive care units (ICUs) of the province.

In an attempt to meet the challenge of Covid-19 in the province, the Sindh government earlier this month increased the allocation for the health sector by 16.1 per cent from Rs114.4 billion to Rs132.88bn in the provincial budget for 2020-21.

In addition to Rs132.88bn, Rs7bn has been allocated for nine vertical programmes, including polio control, AIDS and TB, thus making the total allocation for the health sector Rs139.17bn. Despite facing a serious financial crunch...