ISLAMABAD, Feb 17: The Federal Government Services Hospital (FGSH), commonly known as Polyclinic, has placed an order to buy a Mercedes Benz cardiac ambulance costing Rs13.1 million for VVIP patients.

The requisition for the new ambulance was made by overlooking the fact that the hospital faced a financial deficit of Rs82 million in 2003 as it was provided far less budget against the demand. The hospital administration is also in the process of procuring a portable ventilator to be fitted to the ambulance.

The ambulance offers a number of advances to improve the standard of care given by emergency medical technicians and paramedics to seriously ill or injured patients.

These include a more spacious working area, better design to carry the latest medical equipment as well as light-weight oxygen bottles and improved stretcher-trolley. However, hospital Medical Superintendent Javed Chaudhry clarified that the hospital would not face any loss since the ambulance was being purchased from the development budget specifically allocated for the hospital by the government.

Minister of State for Health Hamid Yar Hiraj, who visited the hospital on Tuesday, was told during a briefing by the MS that the recurring budget of the hospital for the current year was Rs264 million, of which a large chunk of Rs110 million would be spent to meet establishment charges alone, while Rs140.664 million was being spent on commodities and services.

Similarly, Rs200,000 was spent on purchase and Rs5.5 million on repair of durable goods. The minister also went around different wards, especially the emergency unit, which is being renovated. He directed the hospital management to speed up the renovation work so that the problems being faced by the patients could be solved.

During the presentation, the minister was informed that the FGSH was financially overburdened because it was the only hospital in the capital which provided free medicines to patients.

The minister was informed that during 2003-04, payments of Rs62.375 million were made in lieu of procurements used during last year for purchase of medicines.

About the future plans, the MS said a project to develop a burn unit as envisaged in 1995 had now been dropped since the development works to set up the unit had been started at Pims. However, permission was being sought to convert the erected facility into a 12-bed intensive care unit and furnish 18 high dependency patients beds for critically ill patients.

The MS said Ecnec had approved a budget of Rs285 million for upgradation and renovation of the hospital. The project included rebuilding of the hospital in six phases into a vertical structure in accordance with modern applicable technology to ensure best environment, increasing bed capacity to 600 and design and implement electronic patient information system.

Facilities of tele-consultation, establishment of trauma centre and dispensary at sector G-10 and setting up of a urology and transplantation unit at sector G-7 were also included in the plans.