Mother, child healthcare: Rawalpindi gets filter clinic

RAWALPINDI: A maternity and paediatric filter clinic was inaugurated at the busiest Committee Chowk on Monday. The hospital, built at a cost of Rs100 million would provide primary health care to women and infants in the populated localities of Dhoke Elahi Bux, Dhoke Khabba, Mukha Singh State, Nadeem Colony, Javaid Colony, Chamanzar Colony, Arya Muhalla, and College Road.

Former MNA Hanif Abbasi while addressing the inaugural ceremony said that the clinic would be later upgraded to a 50-bed hospital equipped with modern facilities.

The former legislator said that in the last two years, the provincial government had spent Rs2 billion on the up-gradation of hospitals and Rs450 million on the provision of basic health facilities in Benazir Bhutto Hospital.

The government also spent Rs200 million on buying medical equipment and Rs200 million had been set aside for the purchase of MRI machine in the Holy Family Hospital, Abbasi noted.

In response to a question about the maternity hospital at the place of old TB hospital near Eidgah, the former MNA said that work on the project could not be started due to legal hitches as a contractor had obtained a stay order from the court.

He added that the value of the under-construction hospital could not be denied.

The Mother and Children Hospital was the brainchild of MNA Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The project was started in 2006.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2016.