KARACHI: Sindh is one of the worst provinces to manage and provide quality health care to its citizens. In order to enhance the quality of health care and fully operationalise its under-performing public health facilities and services, the Sindh government started a Public Private Partnership Programme in 2010.
After a four-year delay, in 2014 the Sindh Health Department invited bidders to collaborate with it. After the expression of interest (EOI) was published, more than 37 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including the Indus Hospital, Hussaini, Aga Khan Health Services, Medical Emergency Relief International (MERLIN), and Aman Foundation participated in different tenders.
One of the tenders was to operationalise 13 health facilities in Sajawal and Thatta.
On March 19, 2015, MERLIN was awarded the tender to operate 13 medical facilities in Sajawal and Thatta including the Civil Hospital Thatta.
According to the agreement, the Sindh Health Department has given the thirteen facilities for a period of five years.
Following the initial 15-month monitoring period, the automatic renewal process will be carried out and MERLIN will continue to work for the remainder of the five years.
Unfortunately, in 2014, MERLIN merged with Save the Children and closed its operations in Pakistan.Staff and other organisation members of MERLIN changed the name of the NGO and started work as Medical Emergency Resilience Foundation (MERF).
The CEO of MERF and former country head of MERLIN, Dr Shah Meeran also confirmed that they were registered as a national entity with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in November 2015.
Ehsanullah Wazir, former director of the Sindh government's public-private partnership node, said a prejudiced act was done by the Sindh government adding that MERF did not participate in any tender and all the documents and tender process was done under the name of MERLIN.
He further added that according to the health department's expression of interest (EOI) — published in several newspapers — any healthcare NGO that has a minimum five years of experience is allowed to participate in the bidding process.
The question that arises then, is how the department awarded and allowed MERF to operate and run the hospitals in Sajawal and Thatta districts when they only registered with the SECP in 2015.
While Sindh Health Minister Dr Sikander Ali Mandhro appreciated MERF's performance, he also said that he will probe the matter. Mandhro claimed that all agreements for Public-Private Partnership Node are clean and legal.
According to health experts, most projects in the sector are run via a public-private partnership. Experts said that the performance of NGOs working in this partnership is good especially when compared with the provincial government. However, experts were of the opinion that the way to adopt healthcare units remains questionable.