PM approves 1,200-bed hospital for capital

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday approved the construction of a major health facility in the capital. The decision is a welcome step given, the pressure on existing public sector healthcare facilities.

Once constructed, the new hospital will be first such addition to healthcare facilities in the city in the last 30 years.

Directions have been issued to the federal health ministry to allocate 20 acres of land for the construction of the 1,200-bed hospital at Kuri Road.

The Aga Khan Foundation will provide free-of-cost technical assistance for the establishment of the medical facility, where 600 beds will be allocated for specialised care units, sources told The Express Tribune.

The federal capital currently has a concentration of hospitals only in the “G” sectors.

Over the years, the city has seen a considerable expansion on its western and southern fringes, with the construction of hundreds of new homes in dozens of new housing societies.

With the dearth of government hospitals that are overcrowded and notorious for providing poor health services a number of unregulated private hospitals, clinics and pathology labs have sprung up all over the city and its adjoining areas. However, here too, the patients complain of high fees, poor professionalism and despicable standards.

Over a stretch of around 24kms from Rawat, where the federal capital’s limits ends in the south there is not a single government hospital and accident and emergency cases have to be taken through a 12km long clogged section of the Islamabad Expressway before they can receive any first aid.

A similar situation is faced by all those residing in the “G” and “B” sectors across the GT Road on the city’s west.

In the government sector, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) with an adjoining Children’s Hospital is the largest health facility.

A lack of primary and secondary healthcare facilities in the rural areas of the country and adjoining districts of the city have resulted in enormous pressures on the already over-capacity hospitals, particularly the Pims.

The quality of treatment and healthcare facilities at the institute are on the decline, owing to an influx of patients from all over the country, shortage of doctors, medicines and mismanagement.

However, the hospital management has been blaming the shortage of funds for the sorry state of affairs.

The Pims has witnessed a 350 per cent increase in the number of patients while its budget has only been raised by a meager eight per cent, an institute official said.

Other hospitals in the city including, the Federal Government Services Hospital, or Policlinic, Capital Hospital (CDA Hospital), the National Institute of Health and Nuclear Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute (Nori) and the National Institute of Health in Chak Shahzad are also working under a lot of pressure due to high number of patients.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2016.