Health woes: Hayatabad hospital devoid of basic facilities

CT scanner out of order, government yet to procure MRI scanner.

PESHAWAR:

Action on ground does not seem to concur with the tall claims made by the incumbent government in the health sector of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

The government is yet to procure a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner for Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), the second largest hospital in the provincial capital.

According to officials concerned, the equipment is out of order since 2012 and poor patients are compelled to go to private hospitals and pay large sums for a single test.

“It is not just the MRI equipment. The computerized tomography (CT) scanner is also knackered,” an HMC official requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune.

He said that the HMC used to charge Rs2,500 for the MRI and has not conducted a single test since the scanner broke down, adding that patients are now being diverted to private facilities that charge a minimum of Rs5,000 for it.

The official informed that a letter was reportedly written to former secretary health Aftab Durrani in this regard, but the bidding for the equipment was cancelled just a day before the scheduled date and the issue has been on the backburner ever since.



“The government cancelled the bidding and decided for a public-private partnership for the procurement, but the bidding companies refused the offer, citing the proposed amount of Rs2.05 million to be too little, even for a second-hand machine,” the official disclosed, adding that lack of interest is the primary problem causing the delay, not funds.

The official said that a 1992 model MRI machine was installed at the HMC back in 2000 and was repaired several times at a total cost of Rs1.7 million. Eventually though, Siemens refused to repair the machine, saying its spare parts were available no more.



Passing the buck

When contacted, HMC’s deputy medical superintendent Dr Ghulam Nabi refused to comment. He said that the procurement department should be contacted for the hospital’s version. Subsequently, the procurement department’s superintendent Muhammad Jan told The Express Tribune that a pre-bidding meeting was conducted and its minutes have already been sent to the government on October 16, 2014 but further directives are awaited.

Situated in the heart of Peshawar’s posh suburb, HMC generated revenue of over Rs50 million during fiscal year 2012-13. Out of this, nearly Rs30 million was generated by the radiology department alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2014.