Pindi allied hospitals overburdened, face funds shortage

BBH, PCH and DHQ hospitals have 2,280 beds while Rs4.5b was allocated in the last budget

RAWALPINDI: The allied hospitals in Rawalpindi seem to be overwhelmed due to the high influx of patients and a lack of funds and facilities to cater to them.

While Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has announced to add as many as 9,000 beds at public-run hospitals across the province, the expansion cannot come soon enough for the three allied hospitals in the garrison city.

The allied hospitals of Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and the District Headquarters (DHQ) hospital have combined 2,280 beds.

HFH has the most beds with 970, followed by BBH with 840 beds and then DHQ with 470 beds.

Owing to the limited bed space and the large influx of patients these hospitals receive from Rawalpindi division and adjoining areas such as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir means that many patients have to wait their turn to be admitted. Many important surgical operations are also delayed by as much as a year.

In the last annual development budget for Punjab, a sum of Rs4.5 billion had been earmarked for the allied hospitals in Rawalpindi but it never fully materialised. Even though the allied hospitals are bearing a greater burden than their capacity, they also have to deal with a shortage of funds.

The Express Tribune has learnt that the collective annual budget for all three allied hospitals for procurement of medicines is merely Rs1.1 billion which is insufficient and does not correspond to the daily count of people visiting the health facilities.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2020.