Holy Family’s fate hangs in balance

Holy Family Hospital, the city’s largest health facility, has been facing the state’s apathy for the last six months or so as the authorities concerned have missed the third deadline to complete the renovations and revamp of the facility.

The hospital has been closed to the general public for the past six months and now the Communication and Works (C&W) Department has set the fourth deadline of May 20 for the completion of the project.

With a capacity of 1,052 beds, the hospital was completely closed on October 25, 2023, for renovation and revamp worth more than Rs3 billion. The C&W Department set the third deadline of March 31, 2023, for the completion of the project. The burden of patients from Holy Family Hospital was transferred to the already overburdened Benazir Bhutto General Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Transplantation.

The shifting of patients to Benazir Bhutto General Hospital and District Headquarters Hospitals has created a severe shortage of beds as two women and three newborn children are being kept on each bed in the Gynae wards. The patients are getting three to four months for all types of surgeries. The main reason for the delay in renovation work on the building of Holy Family Hospital, which closed for patients during the caretaker government, is the failure of the concerned authority to fulfil its responsibility.

Medical Superintendent of Holy Family Hospital, Dr Ijaz Butt, says the project of renovation and revamp of the old block, which has now been given the status of the Peds and Gynecology Complex, has been completed. However, the work in the new block is still ongoing, he added. He said the C&W department had offered the hospital to make the emergency and OPD wards functional after necessary repairs and hand but the hospital management rejected the offer, saying the hospital would not be able to transfer the patients, coming to these wards, in the general wards [ without repairs].

Sources said that managements of hospitals, that are having the burden of Holy Family Hospital, have pressed the district administration to make Holy Family Hospital functional to reduce burdens.

It is worth mentioning that several officials of the caretaker and the elected government of Punjab have already visited the hospital and issued instructions to complete the renovation and revamp but these instructions have not yielded any results.

The non-access to Holy Family Hospital has forced the patients to avail costly private health facilities including hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and laboratories in and around Holy Family Hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune May 1^st, 2024.