PM’s health initiative: K-P govt wants specialised, not general hospitals

Federal govt has identified 8 sites for general hospitals

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa suggested on Thursday that the Prime Minister’s initiative for improving health infrastructure across the country should focus on setting up specialised health facilities instead of general hospitals in the province.

Officials involved in the PM’s initiative wrote to the K-P chief secretary that eight sites were identified in districts Haripur, Charsadda, Batagram, Hangu, Chitral, Garhi Habibullah, Kaghan and Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) for building the proposed hospitals.

However, officials of the provincial health department insisted that although the department supported the PM’s initiative, the sites identified by the federal government were already equipped with health facilities with more beds than the area required.

“When we already have such facilities, we requested the federal government to support (setting up of) specialised facilities so that the burden is shifted from general to specialised hospitals,” a senior health official told The Express Tribune.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that they were facing problems because of non-payment of salaries to Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital in Swat, adding that there was already a general hospital in Chitral with all facilities, therefore a hospital for Boni should be considered.

“The hospital in Boni is already included in the ADP scheme for upgradation to Category C at a cost of Rs397.8 million … the same should be funded by the federal government so that it could be upgraded to Category B with 210 beds,” an official document stated.

According to the same document, “with a population of some 775,246, hospitals with 310 beds are required in the district, but an existing facility has been provided 490 beds … In Charsadda, 443 beds are required, but the existing facilities has 580 beds.

“District Torghar does not have any DHQ hospital but the scheme is reflected in ADP for 2016-17 at a cost of Rs600 million,” the document reads.

The provincial government also suggested that since the federal government intended to run the identified facilities on either public-private partnership or through federal grants, these hospitals should be run on the pattern of hospitals run by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) because public-private partnership would be costlier for general public.

Keeping in view the long standing issue of non-payment of grants for Burns and Trauma Centers by the federal government in the provincial capital, the provincial government suggested a grant of Rs1,479 million should be released so that the facility could be completed as soon as possible.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2016.