Capital’s health facilities groaning under population weight

There are few hospitals when compared to the number of residents now living in the city

ISLAMABAD: With the population of the federal capital exceeding 2 million per the new census, the city’s authorities have failed to develop health facilities in proportion to its burgeoning population.

As a result, the two tertiary care hospitals in the capital have come under increasing pressure.

The Federal Government Polyclinic (Polyclinic) provides treatment to around 6,000 to 8,000 patients at its outpatient departments (OPD) and attached dispensaries every day. This amounts to around 3 million patients every year.

Meanwhile, the OPD at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) tends to around 4,000 patients every day of whom around 200 of them are admitted. The emergency department tends to an additional 1,200 patients every day, with the hospital tending to around 1.2 million patients annually.



The two hospitals not only cater to patients from Islamabad but also those from adjoining areas including Rawalpindi, Murree, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The federal government had recommended building four new hospitals in different sectors of the capital, each with 500 beds.

Moreover, it had been proposed that Polyclinic would be extended and upgraded. The 36 dispensaries operating in rural areas of the capital would also get a makeover.

Unfortunately, the plans could not be implemented.

The health infrastructure programme, announced by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had included the construction of three new hospitals in the capital.

But little to no progress has been made on the project.

(TRANSLATED BY ARSHAD SHAHEEN)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2017.