Punjab’s takeover of Mother & Child Hospital begins

The Punjab government has started the process of taking over the administration of Rawalpindi’s Mother and Child Hospital from the federal government, its caretaker minister for primary and secondary healthcare said Monday.

Minister Dr Jamal Nasir visited the Holy Family Hospital (HFH), which is currently under renovation and slated to resume normal service in February, he said that the hospital would open ‘soon’ after the transfer process is complete.

Dr Nasir said that the city needed another public sector healthcare facility to take the load off existing government hospitals which had an extremely high footfall of patients.

The Mother and Child Hospital has been under construction for the last 17 years, launched during General Pervez Musharraf's presidency in 2006.

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At that time, it was envisioned as a 400-bed hospital to be built at a cost of Rs3 billion. The project remained stalled between 2008 till 2018 when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was in power in the province. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf resumed the project after coming to power but work was halted after the party’s ouster.

The construction of the hospital building was completed at a cost of Rs9 billion, with the increase cited to delays. Moreover, the hospital was reduced from a 400-bed hospital to a 200-bed facility. A nursing school was also to be established at the hospital. There was a plan to establish a chest disease centre to deal with tuberculosis and breast cancer cases.

He said the Punjab govt was taking charge of the hospital, and it would become operational shortly. There were no timelines provided as to when the transfer and the operationalisation would take place.

Regarding the HFH, he said 20 per cent work had been finished, Health Minister Dr Jamal Nasir said and added that the Holy Family reconstruction deadline is February 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2023.