Seemin Jamali
Head of Emergency Department, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre
The Hope Brigade Karachi, 2021
I can’t forget the first time I saw people die in the emergency ward of a hospital. That day I decided I had to turn things around. I formed a solid team of individuals as passionate as myself. Nothing can defeat a person if they make up their mind to get something done.
Dr Seemin Jamali is the Executive Director and Head of the Emergency department at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), a public hospital in Pakistan. Working in a poorly-resourced emergency ward in a violence-ridden and densely populated city like Karachi, she has dealt with everything from petty injuries due to gunshot wounds to dealing with victims of mob violence, terror attacks and bomb blasts. Unlike other government health facilities in the province, where the neglect, corruption and lack of facilities and staff are quite dystopian, the emergency ward at JPMC is clean, well-staffed and well-equipped. In order to achieve this, the formidable woman has led from the front for over two decades, in one of the most improbable and difficult places for a woman to be.