Health upgrades: Govt scales back focus on facilities in federal capital

Plan to build 46 hospitals across the country apparently shelved

ISLAMABAD: Even though the incumbent government has repeatedly stated that health is among the sectors it is according top priority to, it seems the government has scaled back health-related projects across the country, limiting them to just the federal capital.

The previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had announced in mid-2016 of a plan to build as many as 46 new hospitals across the country at a cost of Rs9.318 billion.

In this regard, the government wrote to the chief secretaries of all provinces, and to those of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and the Islamabad Capital Territory to allocate land for the projects. The project was launched after it emerged that the ratio of patients to 1,000 hospital beds had risen from five in 1970 to 62 in 2016. But by building the 46 hospitals, the government would be able to add around 13,400 beds around the country.

The proposed sites for hospitals with 500 beds or more in Punjab were Rajanpur, Jhang, Bhakkar, Sadiqabad and Rawalpindi. The 250-bed hospitals were to be built in Burewala, Ahmedpur East, Kot Addu, Taunsa, Sahiwal (Sargodha), Pasroor and Layyah.

Separate 500-bed hospitals were to be constructed in the three Sindh cities of Jacobabad, Mirpurkhas and Badin while 250-bed hospitals were to be set up in Islamkot, Nausharo Feroze and Meher districts.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 500-bed hospitals were to be built in Haripur and Charsadda; while 250-bed hospitals were to be constructed in Battagram, Hangu, the former federally administered tribal areas (Fata) and Chitral. Another two hospitals were planned in Garhi Habibullah and Kaghan with a 100-bed capacity.

In Balochistan, 100-bed hospitals were to be constructed in Hub, Naushki, Chaman and Panjgur; 250-bed hospitals in Khuzdar, Loralai and Sibi. A 500-bed hospital was to be built in Quetta.

In G-B, 250-bed hospitals will be constructed in Skardu and Gilgit, a 100-bed hospital in Karimabad (Hunza) while another 50-bed hospital in Ghanche.

In AJK, a 250-bed hospital will be constructed in Muzaffarabad, separate 100-bed hospitals are planned in Rawlakot, Kotli and Athmuqam and a 50-bed hospital will be set up at Leepa. Three hospitals were planned in the federal capital.

However, work could not practically start on any of the hospitals in the last fiscal year even though the government had allocated Rs1.317 billion to start work on preparing the master plan and design of these 46 hospitals apart from planning for the medical equipment planning and supervision of construction services.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government — which has been at pains to explain just how short of money the country is, is now only considering developing the three hospitals in Islamabad, including the cancer hospital, having cut the project from the revised Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) as part of the mini-budget the government unveiled in September.

According to sources, after preparing the plan for the project, the former government had kept the project under the control of the Prime Minister’s Office while funds for the project were to be provided from the then newly established Health Infrastructure Development Management Company, which was operated from the PM’s Office.

However, just a few days before the end of the former government’s tenure, the project was given under the control of the health ministry.

Sources further said that after the 18th constitutional amendment, health as a subject had been devolved to the provinces. Hence, the federal health ministry could not build hospitals within provincial territories.

But if the project was to be operated from the PM Office, the federal government could build hospitals in the provinces.

For the moment, the government is pushing ahead with the project to build hospitals in the federal capital including a 200-bed hospital at Tarlai apart from upgrading three mother and child hospitals in Bara Kahu, Rawat and Tarnol. All rural health centres and basic health units of the Islamabad Capital Territory were also being refurbished and upgraded.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2018.