PESHAWAR, Oct 20: In a bid to promote their products, several pharmaceutical companies are making donations to teaching hospitals in the city to maintain their wards.

"Some very unique ways have been adopted by the pharmaceutical firms. They build structures such as wooden and cemented counters, install direct telephone lines and pay for insecticides and other stuff required for keeping wards clean," a senior consultant at a 1,000-bed hospital said.

The government, he said, could not provide funds for maintaining wards. "We need money to keep a 40-bed ward running," he said, justifying his decision to take money from the drug companies.

A professor at one of the hospitals said that he had sent several applications to his superiors asking them for money to make cupboards in the ward he worked in, but they didn't give him anything.

On the other hand, he said, a pharmaceutical firm had some drawers constructed for them which were being used by some junior doctors to keep their stethoscopes and books in.

Just how much money is required to keep the hospitals running can be assessed from the fact that the three hospitals in the city, the Khyber Teaching Hospital, the Lady Reading Hospital and the Hayatabad Medical Complex, have 100 wards, each ward having 40-plus beds.

"Every ward needs at least 40 tubelights a month, and the government is not in a position to provide us the things we need, so we rely on the donations of the MNCs," a doctor said.

A nurse said that they faced a severe shortage of spirit and cotton on many occasions because the stores at the hospital could not maintain a regular flow of supplies. She said they had no option but to accept donations from the representatives of the MNCs.

In yet another instance of a pharmaceutical firm coming to the rescue of a hospital, a ward was provided with 100 bed sheets, 100 pillow-covers and some blankets, a dispenser told this correspondent.