Civil Hospital upgraded to DHQ Hospital ‘in name only’

Newly upgraded Civil Hospital reportedly lacks basic healthcare facilities and medical staff.

SIALKOT: The district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in Daska, recently upgraded from Civil Hospital to the DHQ, lacks basic healthcare facilities and medical staff, Daska residents alleged.

They said that the hospital has been upgraded only in name while there was no improvement in the facilities available now and in the past.

The provincial government had recently upgraded the hospital after spending RS150 million on the construction of its new building. The residents complained that doctors and paramedic staff were mostly absent and medicines not available in the hospital. They alleged that the Health Department officials were not taking notice of the situation.

The relatives of two patients, Hina and Shama, on Wednesday staged a protest outside the hospital against the administration. Talking to The Express Tribune, they alleged that there was no doctor available in the emergency ward to provide treatment to their patients.

The protestors alleged that the doctors were running private clinics and were never present at the hospital during their duty hours. They demanded immediate inquiry into the state-of-affairs at the hospital.

Capt (Rtd) Muhammad Iqbal, the DHQ hospital medical superintendent (MS), reached the spot and attempted to calm the protestors. The MS, however, could not provide a satisfactory answer about the absence of the doctors.

The hospital administration said that there were no funds available to get three ambulances repaired or to purchase fuel for them and the two generators.

The hospital at present has no gynecologist in its staff as two recently resigned while two others reportedly left due to shortage of maternity healthcare facilities and overload of work.

While the well-off visit the private maternity homes and clinics that have of late mushroomed around the Daska city, the poor women visiting the DHQ hospital for their deliveries are left at the mercy of untrained and inexperienced staff nurses.

There is only one woman medical officer (WMO) at hospital. She looks after all emergency cases and issues medico-legal certificates.

Mujahid Sher Dil, the Sialkot district coordination officer, visited the hospital a week ago. He told The Tribune that he had directed for the transfer of a gynecologist from the tehsil headquarter (THQ) hospital in Pasrur to the DHQ hospital in Daska.

Capt Iqbal, however, said that no gynecologist has yet reported for work.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2010.