Dengue epidemic exposes carelessness of public sector hospitals in K-P

‘Non-professional and non-serious approach’ of health workers adds to people’s woes

PESHAWAR: The dengue ‘epidemic’ in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has exposed the fault lines in the recently introduced Medical Teaching Institute (MTI) reforms in the largest public sector hospitals of the province.

The MTIs had been instructed by the health department to establish one-window operations with separate round-the-clock counters, testing, reception and counseling of patients suspected of having dengue.



In a letter titled ‘Non-professional and non-serious approach to health emergency (Dengue) and non-compliance of government directive’ issued on August 30, the Deputy Secretary Health notes that a week ago minister and secretary of health themselves visited the Mardan Medical Complex but saw that none of the above-mentioned arrangements were made.

The minister revisited the hospitals on Wednesday and the situation had not changed.



“This bespeaks of highest unprofessional attitude and negating clear instructions of the government in public interest,” the letter said, concluding that any untoward incident or fallout will be pure and straight responsibility of the hospital management as it’s tantamount to diriment of the day and night efforts of the government.

K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak declared a dengue emergency for controlling and combating the situation at hand. While another woman, Niaz Bibi, 45, passed away in Peshawar making the total deaths 13 to date.

However, the MMC is just a glimpse of the neglect and non-compliance of official orders. The situation remains almost the same in most of the MTIs despite repeated reminders by the health department.



The Express Tribune visited the Lady Reading Hospital, the largest in the province. While the long queues at public hospitals are understandable, the dengue counter was manned by a class four employee.

After obtaining the hospital slip, this correspondent was sent to room number 10, which was again the general emergency unit. The three trainee medical officers, when asked about dengue test said that they were loaded with patients and said it was the job of the laboratory to carry out the tests.



This correspondent was then referred to the laboratory, after waiting in the queue, the employee at the counter said that the blood samples needed, had to be carried out by the hospital staff and was referred back to room 10. Where after a wait, was then referred to room 20, where the doctor said that this ward was reserved for women and was then referred to the main lab. Upon reaching the main lab, the employee at the counter said that the time for dengue tests was over and I had to come back the next day.

An official of the Lady Reading Hospital and a member of the board of governors (BOG) of the hospital told The Express Tribune, that there were many problems they were facing.



“We accept that the patients are facing tremendous problems,”  adding that even last night an old woman who had been diagnosed with dengue had to sleep on the hospital floor because she was not provided a bed.

“We are trying to figure it out and make relevant changes,” the official said.

The Khyber Teaching hospital has patients admitted in the eye, skin and ENT wards because of the number of patients coming in.



“We can’t accommodate all of them in medical wards,” said an employee with access to the records but did not want to be named because of fear of a backlash from the hospital management.

“There were 963 people screened for dengue on Wednesday of which 144 tested positive,” said the employee.



“KTH never provides line data to identify specific areas where the patient is coming from making it difficult to respond to specific cases,” a health department official told The Express Tribune, suggesting internal wrangling even after the minister and secretary of health visited all the hospitals.

“A member of the inspection team had to take a broom to clean a portion of the Hayatabad Medical Complex which was not cleaned up by the administration after dengue larvae were discovered on premises of the hospital,” he added.