In name only: CDA clueless about own hospital’s state of affairs

Establishment in 1982, CDA hospital yet to get any upgrades.

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA), responsible of taking care of a city of almost two million residents, seemingly cannot even take care of the hospital that bears its name.

Besides facing an acute shortage of medicines, CDA Hospital, the third-largest public hospital in the capital, also lack trained staff to handle surgical equipment worth millions of rupees, all of which is collecting dust in its operation theatres (OTs).

At the receiving end of this mismanagement are around 100,000 employees of the civic body registered with the hospital, said sources at the facility. Since its establishment in 1981, not a single CDA chairman has bothered to uplift or upgrade the hospital, they added.

Medicine

Patients and their attendants have to go to a pharmacy in F-8 which with which CDA has signed a contract for the provision of free medicines to its employees, a source told The Express Tribune.



Unfortunately, many of the lower-cadre employees cannot afford to travel from G-6 to F-8 due to the lack of public transport in the city.

“Paying a cabbie Rs400 to get medicine worth Rs150 is just ridiculous. The authority should provide us the required medicines at the hospital,” said a CDA employee asking not to be named.

The contract was not always exclusive to this pharmacy. In the past, the authority granted such contracts to various drug stores --- one each in Blue Area, Super Market and Melody Market.

“The contracts could not be carried forward because the civic body failed to clear its dues,” revealed a source at the hospital.

Surgical wing

The hospital currently houses only one full-fledged OT which was established in 1982, and it is also in deplorable condition. Sources said patients needing surgery are usually referred to other public hospitals in the capital, where they have to wait for months and even years for their turn.

CDA Administration Member Amir Ali Ahmed said a window will soon be established in the hospital to ensure a round the clock availability of the essential drugs.

Besides this, the Authority’s technical committee recently approved the construction of four new state-of-the-art OTs and a cardiac centre at total a cost of Rs190 million, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2014.