Order issued to appoint 64 personnel in RIUT

Step taken to promptly make health facility functional

RAWALPINDI:

The Punjab government has finally taken a practical step to make the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant (RIUT) functional as it issued orders for 64 appointments.

According to a notification issued by the Department of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education secretary, the officials concerned have been directed to appoint technical, non-technical and administrative staff on 64 seats. The cornerstone of the project was laid by Prime Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif as the Chief Minister of Punjab in 2012. Now, he will inaugurate the project as the country’s prime minister later this month.

The hospital already has appointed a limited number of professors, doctors, specialists, nursing staff and support staff and more vacancies will also be filled soon.

Around 98 per cent of the civil work of the RIUT building has been completed during the past two years and its premises have been used as the main treatment center for Covid-19. After the end of the fifth wave of coronavirus and the change of government, it has been decided to make this project functional.

After the Department of Kidney Transplant is operational, the facility will provide free-of-cost kidney transplantation for patients with renal complications.

The hospital building consists of a 265-bed facility. A large number of people in Punjab are unable to get a kidney transplant from the private sector as it costs around Rs3-4 million. In addition, many patients are not even able to get routine dialysis for themselves due to the limited availability of dialysis machines in government hospitals. Consequently, poor and low-income patients often have to wait long for treatment.

Read ‘RIUT to be made operational before Eid’

The initial cost of RIUT building has gone up from Rs3.20 billion to Rs3.80 billion and now for the third time, it has increased to Rs4 billion.

The hospital will have a 30-machine dialysis centre, while five state-of-the-art modular operating theaters and one more operating theater will also be part of the public health facility.

Around two weeks ago, Rawalpindi Commissioner Noorul Amin Mengal directed the Punjab Building Department to complete the remaining work at the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology Transplantation (RIUT) within 10 days and hand it over it to the Health Department. He said the completion of RIUT was in the final stages and the provincial government was determined to upgrade the existing health facilities in Rawalpindi and use all available resources to bring a visible change in the delivery of health services.

Around 95 per cent of the construction work had been completed at the RIUT, he said and asked the hospital's administration that if there were any hurdles in the purchase of the machinery, inform him, it would be removed immediately.

"The hospital will have a discipline-wise signboard and an emergency ward as per international standards," he added.

He had directed the Municipal Corporation administration to remove the encroachment along with the hospital's site so that there would be no difficulty in the movement of patients.