PESHAWAR: Hospitals' development project hits snags
By Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR, Feb 11: The health department of NWFP is facing difficulties in implementation of the project regarding uplift of district headquarters (DHQ) hospitals throughout the province, officials said.
The department had undertaken the task of improving and upgrading DHQ hospitals in 22 districts of the province two years ago with a view to enabling the people to seek treatment in their own districts instead of visiting tertiary-care hospitals in Peshawar.
"However, there is a little progress because of utilisation of funds at snail's pace, whereas in Nowshera and Hangu districts the process is hampered by disputes", officials said.
The government had allocated Rs82 million for construction of a new DHQ hospital in Hangu two year ago but the construction is yet to start. The land on which the hospital was supposed to be built is under occupation of some local people and the administration has failed to take its possession.
"The people, who claim that they have been legal occupants of the land for the last 150 years, also held a meeting with the DCO Hangu but the same remained inconclusive", said an official, adding that the DCO then sent a letter to the health department, requesting it to intervene and resolve the matter, but as yet there has been no progress.
Likewise, construction of a new DHQ in Nowshera has been marred by the health department's dispute with the Pakistan Railways. The latter claims ownership of the land on which the hospital is proposed to be built.
The government had allocated Rs828 million for the project but only nine per cent of these funds has been spent on erection of a boundary wall and minor civil works.
A most backward district, Kohistan, has also suffered a lot as its proposed DHQ hospital is still at pre-launching stage, mainly because of lack of interest on the part of the public works department, and Rs128 million funds allocated for the project remain unutilised.
Officials said that slow pace of work is responsible for non-completion of these projects which were supposed to be completed in three yeas by June 30, 2005. "Of the total estimated cost of Rs4 billion, only 30 per cent funds have been spent so far because of slow transfer of funds", the officials said.
They argued that through budgetary support under the World Bank's Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) programme, the health department could complete some of the components of the project.
"If we remain within our own means, we cannot complete them even after passage of the stipulated period", officials said. They also pointed out some anomalies in the overall scheme and said that the original plan envisaged improvement and up gradation of existing DHQ hospitals but the government included construction of new DHQs in Nowshera, Kohistan and Hangu in it.
"These districts already had their DHQs which could be improved and refurbished but the government sanctioned construction of new hospitals out of political considerations", said the officials.
"The three new hospitals alone needed Rs1038 million, an amount which could have sufficed in up gradation of all the hospitals of the province", they said and added that construction of these three new DHQs was marred by disputes over the respective pieces of land.
