Health monitoring: Mardan hospital lacks essential facilities

Report says patient care and safety also being overlooked

PESHAWAR: A monitoring team of the health department has uncovered a scandalous lack of essential facilities and infrastructure at the District Headquarters Hospital in Mardan.

An X-ray machine installed four years ago at the hospital is not working, the team said in a report shared with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health department.

Despite being constructed less than half a decade ago, leakages were found in the building whose washrooms and wards are in need of urgent repair.

According to the report, the hospital needs a new X-ray machine with CR system and the latest ultrasound machines. It also needs a proper mechanism to manage radiation hazards. Qualified staff is also needed for account management at the facility.

“Patient safety needs to be ensured by installing window grills in the psychiatry ward,” it said. The team stated that the lift was not working and needed immediate repair. It also proposed a proper waste disposal mechanism.

“No recovery room existed with the operation theatre,” the committee report read adding that emergency trays in wards were not properly maintained while the staff employees also lacked basic skills.

A similar team visited Divisional Headquarters Hospital Nowshera where cleanliness was not up to the required standard.

“Strict supervision of the medical superintendent is required as specialist doctors are only interested in their private clinics instead of service provision,” the monitoring team reported adding that they received complaints that the cardiologist was referring patients to his private clinic.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2017.