Polyclinic to ask ministry for supplementary grant

ED Dr Hanif hopes funds can be provided in next budget

ISLAMABAD: Days after the top court paved the way for expanding the Federal Government Services Hospital (Poly Clinic) in the federal capital by vacating a stay order, the hospital administration is hoping to ask the health ministry for a supplementary grant to prepare a feasibility study for the new building.

"We have decided to immediately ask the health ministry for a supplementary grant for the expansion project and advertise to hire a consultant so that we can prepare a feasibility report for the project on an emergency basis," Polyclinic Executive Director Dr Shahid Hanif told The Express Tribune, adding, "We require funds to conduct the feasibility report, test soil samples or have an environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out."

He hoped that if the supplementary grant is approved, they can complete the feasibility study by the next fiscal budget when the government can allocate funds to start construction work on the new building in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

He said that they were happy to hear the top court's order lifting a stay order on constructing a new building of the hospital in the adjoining Argentina Park.

SC paves way for Polyclinic expansion in Islamabad

"The supreme court's directive to suspend the high court's stay order and to grant permission to start work on the hospital's expansion is a welcome decision. We are thankful to outgoing chief justice who has finally resolved this [long-standing] issue," Dr Hanif said.

Explaining the need for expanding the hospital, he said that Polyclinic had been built in 1966 to meet the needs of federal employees and at the time. However, he said that the hospital today bears the burden of patients who hail not only from Islamabad, but also those who hail from adjoining districts and territories including Rawalpindi, Murree, Jhelum, Abbottabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).

Referring to the observation of Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar during the hearing of the case that there was such a rush of patients in the hospital that it was difficult to move around, Dr Hanif said that this meant that the outpatient department (OPD) of the hospital does not have sufficient space for patients.

He disclosed that the extension of the hospital had been approved in 2008 and the government of Argentina had allowed the use of a section of the park to build the hospital. But the matter has been mired in litigation ever since.

After the Islamabad High Court (IHC) withdrew the stay order a couple of years ago in public interest, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) transferred 2.54 acres of the parks land to the hospital administration for Rs44.85 million. But with the land being used as the hospital's parking, it ended up in court again and another stay order followed.

He added that funds to build another block of the hospital had been allocated in multiple federal budgets but the project has faced continuous delays. This affected the formulation of the project concept-II (PC-II) of the project as well which was delayed and then, it was not approved.

According to documents of a PC-II prepared in 2016 for the expansion of the hospital, available with The Express Tribune, show that the new multi-storey building will be in a ground-plus-seven configuration along with a basement and will have a total covered area of 421,944 square feet.

However, the foundations of the building will be reinforced to allow further vertical expansion of up to 20 storeys. Moreover, the construction will be earthquake proof.

Health delivery: SC concerned over lack of medicines in Polyclinic

Other design considerations include traffic and supply flow, location, centralization and autonomy of departments, rapid admission system, early call attendance, patient and staff safety, green environment, flexibility and learning and teaching culture (since the hospital also doubles as a postgraduate medical college).

The new building was supposed to have cost just Rs1.48 billion with Rs137.1 million on civil works, Rs953.1 million on electrical and mechanical works.

However, a revised PC-II suggested constructing seven floors initially and cut the cost down to 1.198 billion, civil infrastructure to Rs118 million, and Rs746.2 million on electrical and mechanical works.

In 2016, the PC-II was presented in a meeting of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) steering committee for approval. However, the then CADD secretary expressed reservations over the Rs59.425 million cost of the feasibility for the project and asked for it to be further rationalized.

Later, the steering committee presented a new PC-II for the project which cut the feasibility cost by Rs15 million to Rs47.896 million and approved it.

"The extension of the hospital has become a necessity since the current building is facing an acute shortage of space due to which we have not been able to install a computerized tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) machines," Polyclinic's Assistant Executive Director Abdul Wali Khan said.

He added that there was no space to build a canteen for the staff and patients in the hospital either.

Polyclinic spokesperson Dr.Sharif Astori said that once built, the extension will help double the number of beds in the hospital from 550 to 1,100.

He added that the plan now was to split the work into two parts. In phase one, a new block will be built on Argentina Park's land and the current hospital will be shifted there.

In the second phase, a new block will be built on the site of the current building.

He added that once complete, the new building will sport modern facilities such as an information management system, critical care service, clinical departments, diagnostic facilities, specialized tertiary care, computerized disease investigation systems, neurosurgery , cardiac surgery, plastic surgery, CT Scan and MRI machines and modern operation theatres along with a car park in the basement.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2019.