Powerless patients: Key machinery lies dormant at hospital

Medical facility in Shabqadar desperately needs smooth flow of electricity to provide treatment

SHABQADAR: Most of the machinery at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Shabqadar is lying dormant owing to the lack of power supply.

Gul Zada Khan, who hails from Danishkol area of Mohmand Agency, waited at the facility from 9am for an X-ray. He and other patients are lining up and waiting for the electricity to return at the expected 12pm. However, there has been no scheduled power supply and patients have been unable to get his X-ray.

Like him, others also wait anxiously for any semblance of electricity at the medical facility.

Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Shabqadar Medical Superintendent Dr Fazal Rabi told The Express Tribune such circumstances produced countless injustices to patients who have to wait for three hours to get an X-ray or lab tests.

Meanwhile, doctors also wait for the power to return as they have to issue prescriptions for patients based on tests and X-rays.

“If electricity is not restored by 12 pm, all their efforts go in vain,” Rabi added. He added the hospital may have modern machinery, but it is all useless due to the lack of electricity.

Inexplicable

The medical superintendent found it strange that power supply to marble factories had continued uninterrupted even though the medical facility had paid its dues on time.

Dr Farahdiba Suleman, who was examining a woman patient at her clinic in the hospital, echoed these sentiments. She said the facility had a modern labour room for delivery cases, but it was not in working order. When asked about the popularity of private clinics as compared to the government hospital, she said although the latter facility has specialised machinery, there is no blood bank. The doctor also added the government hospital needed a specialist gynaecologist.

When contacted, lab in charge Mujeebur Rehman said there is a blood bank present at the facility but it is non-functional. He added if there was constant power supply, the facility would be able to function normally. He added the staff lacks some of the necessary chemicals for a lab test.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2016.