Medical crisis: BBH emergency ward remains non-operational

Patients face difficulties due to limited capacity.

ISLAMABAD: The newly built 25-bed emergency ward of the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) could not be made operational after six months of its inauguration. This is the same hospital where former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was rushed to after she was fatally injured in an attack near Liaquat Bagh in 2007.

Patients at the hospital are facing difficulties because of the limited capacity available in the already functional 40-bed emergency ward at BBH.



Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, a former Member National Assembly, had inaugurated the emergency ward on June 15, 2015, after construction work at the facility was completed.

BBH Medical Superintendent Dr Asif Qadir Mir said the emergency ward will be operational in a few months, as the process of buying equipment and hiring has yet to be completed. The total number of beds in the emergency ward will reach 65 once the new ward is made operational, he added.

The hospital was given a grant of Rs89 million, as compensation for giving a plot of two canals to the metro bus project. Before its inauguration, a demand for Rs83 million in funds was sent to the Punjab health department for buying medical equipment as well as hiring doctors, nurses and paramedic staff. The requested amount has yet to be approved.

The hospital urgently needs a large trauma centre for providing better treatment to wounded and patients brought in serious condition, said hospital officials. They added that a recommendation has been forwarded to the health department several times, but to no avail.

Despite the dire need, the hospital could not be upgraded in previous government’s tenure.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2016.