Capital awaits new hospitals

Existing two tertiary healthcare units overwhelmed with patient burden

ISLAMABAD:

Despite claims of the incumbent government to give four new hospitals to Islamabad, no new public health facility could be built in the federal capital during 2020 which has intensified the burden of patients at the two major government hospitals of the city.

A few years ago, the federal ombudsman made recommendations to build four more hospitals in Islamabad including the expansion of the Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital, popularly known as Polyclinic, and upgrading of about three dozen dispensaries under to meet the needs of the city's population of over two million.

 

However, so far neither new hospital has been built nor the expansion of the Polyclinic has been made possible. Only a few dispensaries under the healthcare facility have been upgraded throughout the year. According to the 2017 census, the total population of the city had exceeded two million, which is 1.2 million more than the 800,000 population recorded in the 1998 census.

Polyclinic and Pims were unable to handle the load of the teeming population. At present, these two hospitals have to bear the burden of a much-swelled population of the city additionally with a load of around 100,000 patients who come to seek medical facilities from Murree and Jhelum besides Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), as well as Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).

According to the officials of two government hospitals, at least three million people visit the Outpatient Department (OPD) of the Polyclinic and its 36 dispensaries every year for free of cost consultation. Also, 30,000 to 40,000 people are admitted to the hospital annually. Similarly, more than two million patients visit OPD of Pims annually and more than 78,000 patients are admitted every year for free healthcare.

In 2020 more than 28,670 patients underwent different surgeries and operations and collectively, as many, as 3.3 million blood tests of various types were conducted either free of cost or on highly subsidised rates. Besides, some 380,602 radiology tests were also performed, as per hospital data.

Earlier, in response to the increasing patient load on these two federal government hospitals, the ombudsman had decided to set up new hospitals having 500 beds altogether in different sectors of Islamabad by the end of 2018 and along with the implementation of the expansion of PCH besides up-gradation of 36 dispensaries operating in rural areas of Islamabad under it.

To implement the recommendations, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had extended a plan to build three new hospitals in Islamabad as well as 46 new hospitals to be built across the country under the Prime Minister's Health Infrastructure Programme.

However, the plan was not implemented until he finished his tenure. Moreover, the outbreak of novel coronavirus also exposed the dearth of healthcare establishments and lack of facilities in the existing government hospitals.

During the year 2020, however, a centre has been set up in Islamabad to deal with the pandemic condition in which coronavirus patients were housed. Due to the closure of OPDs in government hospitals for several months amid the pandemic situation, the people bore the brunt. Notably, the OPDs at Pims will remain closed for the next three months.