July 31, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 30: The air-conditioning plant at the Children Hospital has been out of order for the last two years after floodwater entered the basement of the hospital and put electrical equipment and machinery out of order.

At present, the hospital, situated on the premises of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), has a few split air-conditioning units in its emergency, intensive care unit (ICU) and the operation theatre.

The Japanese government, which gifted the equipment to the hospital, including an air-conditioning plant, after a thorough evaluation, has agreed to replace the plant.

“I used to consider the hospital as a heaven for small patients because of the facilities and environment it offered. Now I am disappointed at the level of healthcare facilities and the environment,” said the mother of a patient.

A junior official of the hospital said the Japanese had told the hospital that the air-conditioning plant had been damaged through negligence of the hospital management.

The unprecedented rains of July 23, 2001, had damaged the air-conditioning plant when the hospital basement was submerged and its electrical equipment, including generators, chiller plant and boilers, were inundated.

The situation forced the Pims administration to approach the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), seeking financial assistance for rectifying the design fault, which the hospital management believed was responsible for flooding the equipment.

The hospital had requested the agency to refurbish the air-conditioning plant installed in 1986 when the hospital was commissioned.

JICA in turn had also expressed its willingness to remodel and repair the hospital’s electrical equipment. The agency had even provided some split units for keeping the ICU, emergency and operation theatre air-conditioned.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the hospital conceded that due to improper air-conditioning, patients had to suffer in the sizzling hot weather. However, he said the hospital was expecting that work on installation of the new air-conditioner would start by November.

He said the hospital had been communicated that the proposals for installation of new air-conditioning equipment would be placed before the Japanese government sometimes in September and after its approval the repair work would begin.

JICA after complete evaluation and survey had reached the conclusion that the air-conditioning plant had suffered irreparable losses and could not function properly, the official added. Still the hospital manages to keep the equipment running on low mild cool way with the help of local machine tools vendors, which helped fabricate spare-parts of the air- conditioning plant.

Some bracket fans have been installed in different wards and areas of the hospital but even this was not enough to provide relief to the patients and their attendants.

A clerk at the hospital complained that the room of the administrative staff was fully air-conditioned but doctors and patients lacked the facility.