Shortage of beds, doctors hinders surgeries at BBH

Patients have to wait for months to get their turn for operations

RAWALPINDI:

An alarming shortage of beds, doctors, nurses and other supporting healthcare staff at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) is causing inordinate delays in carrying out operations. Owing to the shortage of doctors and paramedical staff, around 700 surgeries have been put on hold for up to seven months after the diagnose of diseases.

For patients, receiving a date within a reasonable timeframe for their operations at the hospital is becoming increasingly difficult amidst the shortage of staff. According to sources, even scheduled surgeries are sometimes further delayed due to a lack of resources.

Another reason for the inordinate hold-ups is said to be the increasing burden of patients from other parts of the districts as well as from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Patients getting dates in surgical unit one, surgical unit two, urology, and orthopaedic departments for surgeries are left in the lurch, with most of them asked to wait for five to seven months for their respective operations, the sources said.

According to the sources, due to the limited network of operation theatres (OTs), patients coming to the emergency department are given preference over those who receive recommendations from the outpatient departments (OPDs). Due to a prolonged list of pending surgeries and dearth of medical and paramedical staff, scheduled surgeries are often not performed on the given dates as well.