District Headquarters Hospital: Only three professors for 2,500 daily patients
Hospital faces severe space and staff shortage
Hospital faces severe space and staff shortage. ILLUSTRATION: ESSA MALIK
RAWALPINDI:
Rawalpindi District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, which receives the maximum patient load in the Rawalpindi Division, is faced with a multitude of problems, from severe shortage of space to insufficient financial resources and qualified staff.
Established in 1968 in the city’s downtown area, it is a 357-bed hospital with an annual budget of Rs440 million.
With a daily patient load of 2,200 to 2,500, the DHQ Hospital has only three professors.
The emergency department, which receives around 500 patients every day, often runs out of beds. On most days, the staff has to put in additional beds and even use stretchers in addition to the 19 approved additional beds.
It is also the only public-sector hospital with a neurosurgery department in the Rawalpindi Division. The patients come from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan apart from the four districts of the division.
Though the hospital gets a budget for 357 beds, it has been practically working with 450 beds for years now. Hospital officials say the Punjab government is not upgrading its status to a hospital with 400 or more beds because for that the hospital’s category would also have to be changed from B to A. With a change in category, the government would have to also double the budget and increase the number of doctors from the current 90 to 180. There have been several recommendations in the past in this regard but no progress has been made.
Only the emergency, operation theatres, coronary care unit and intensive unit get uninterrupted power supply.
The hospital has six ambulances, one of which is 35 years old; four are 20 years old while the last, the latest, came in 2007.
The hospital administration said 100 per cent medicines are provided in the emergency department and wards while 75 per cent of the prescribed medicines are provided in the outpatient departments. Patients, however, said only a few inexpensive medicines were being provided to them. Most of the times, they said they were told to purchase from a pharmacy.
Due to the space shortage and patient load, the OPDs and corridors are often crammed with people waiting for their turn to see the doctor.
The hospital also provides dialysis, CT scan and laboratory test facilities.
Medical Superintendent Dr Khalid Randhawa told Daily Express that the hospital’s up-gradation and expansion projects were being planned. He said according to the plans, a new emergency department will be built near the main entrance with 75 beds. Randhawa said the new department would also have a helipad on its roof to cater to emergencies.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2015.
Rawalpindi District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, which receives the maximum patient load in the Rawalpindi Division, is faced with a multitude of problems, from severe shortage of space to insufficient financial resources and qualified staff.
Established in 1968 in the city’s downtown area, it is a 357-bed hospital with an annual budget of Rs440 million.
With a daily patient load of 2,200 to 2,500, the DHQ Hospital has only three professors.
The emergency department, which receives around 500 patients every day, often runs out of beds. On most days, the staff has to put in additional beds and even use stretchers in addition to the 19 approved additional beds.
It is also the only public-sector hospital with a neurosurgery department in the Rawalpindi Division. The patients come from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan apart from the four districts of the division.
Though the hospital gets a budget for 357 beds, it has been practically working with 450 beds for years now. Hospital officials say the Punjab government is not upgrading its status to a hospital with 400 or more beds because for that the hospital’s category would also have to be changed from B to A. With a change in category, the government would have to also double the budget and increase the number of doctors from the current 90 to 180. There have been several recommendations in the past in this regard but no progress has been made.
Only the emergency, operation theatres, coronary care unit and intensive unit get uninterrupted power supply.
The hospital has six ambulances, one of which is 35 years old; four are 20 years old while the last, the latest, came in 2007.
The hospital administration said 100 per cent medicines are provided in the emergency department and wards while 75 per cent of the prescribed medicines are provided in the outpatient departments. Patients, however, said only a few inexpensive medicines were being provided to them. Most of the times, they said they were told to purchase from a pharmacy.
Due to the space shortage and patient load, the OPDs and corridors are often crammed with people waiting for their turn to see the doctor.
The hospital also provides dialysis, CT scan and laboratory test facilities.
Medical Superintendent Dr Khalid Randhawa told Daily Express that the hospital’s up-gradation and expansion projects were being planned. He said according to the plans, a new emergency department will be built near the main entrance with 75 beds. Randhawa said the new department would also have a helipad on its roof to cater to emergencies.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2015.