Annual performance: New equipment installed at HMC

Hospital spent half of Rs1.26b on new machines in 2016

PESHAWAR: The Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) of the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) spent Rs1.26 billion between January 1 and December 28 this year and as much as half of the amount was spent on procuring new equipment, a report stated on Thursday.

Announcing the report, the HMC’s Medical Director Dr Shahzad Akbar said that the hospital had achieved more than 90 per cent of its goals, adding that the hospital would soon start offering neonatal intensive care services, considered to be the only state-of-the-art facility across South East Asia.

“I don’t know about such a facility in the private sector, but I can claim this will be the first of its kind in public sector hospitals,” Akbar said, adding that the hospital’s administration had spent Rs413 million on infrastructure and Rs213 million on human resources.

Akbar said that the hospital’s management had set up a fully-equipped accident and emergency department in addition to establishing medical and surgical assessment units executing one-window operations without causing any inconvenience for patients visiting the facility in emergency situations.

Operation theatres, he said, had also been revamped to undertake specialised vitreo-retinal surgeries, laparoscopic procedures, grafting in plastic surgery, endoscopic, neurosurgical and ENT procedures, spinal orthopedic procedures and specialized maxillofacial procedures.

“This model will be replicated in other units of the facility to serve as a model health facility in the province.”

Dr Akbar informed media persons that although the hospital was established in 1996 and despite being one of the largest health facilities with 1,200 beds, it had been unable to handle the large number of patients.

The management, he said, planned to not only handle the increasing number of patients, but also provide the latest healthcare facilities.

The chairman of HMC’s board of governors, Dr Sahibzada Saeed, said all of the renovation work could not be completed simultaneously because the hospital’s management did not want to bother patients, adding that a latest MRI machine was being installed while a CT scanner would be made functional within a week.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2016.