RAWALPINDI: Despite promises by the Punjab government that pending healthcare projects would be completed, the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology worth Rs1.276 billion would not be made functional this year.

A senior health official told Dawn that the provincial government did not release the funds for the hospital last year and this year only Rs75 million was allocated.

He said that work on the project begun in 2012 and was supposed to be completed by January 2014, but the pace of work remained slow and officials attributed the delay to the lack of funding by the provincial government.

“The government released Rs374 million during the last two years. This year Rs75 million was allocated and in the fiscal year 2016-2017 Rs426 million would be released which means the project is likely to be completed by the end of 2018,” he said.

The official said that the team managing the project informed the government that the allocation for this year would not be enough to improve the pace of work.

He said that the project management already informed the government that the Rs75 million allocated for this fiscal year was not enough to speed up the work. He said that the health department also demanded an allocation of Rs200 million but the provincial government refused to provide the funds.

The official said that the government had spent Rs30 billion on the metro bus project which has reduced its ability to fund the healthcare project.

“The contractors have managed to construct the structure of the main building including the emergency block, however, the finishing work is yet to start. The equipment will be purchased once the building is completed,” he said.

Once the construction work has been finished and the equipment has been procured staff recruitment would begin, the official said.

The health department officer further pointed out that the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology is among the two hospital building construction projects which have been facing delay for the last many years.

“Funds are also needed at the mother and child hospital at Committee Chowk for the procurement of equipment,” he said.

There is a need to make these hospitals functional so that patients could be better facilitated, he said.

Talking to Dawn, Commissioner Zahid Saeed admitted that the Institute of Urology would not be completed by end of this fiscal year. He said the government would release funds to speed up the work in coming days.

He said that it was an important project and the state of the art hospital would provide latest treatment facilities including kidney transplant. He said the government is making efforts to speed up work on incomplete projects.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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