PESHAWAR: The construction of new district headquarters hospital in Nowshera is nearing completion.

The hospital, which was announced 11 years ago, will start treating patients within a month. Jamaat-i-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed had sanctioned a new category A hospital for his native Nowshera district as senator in 2005.

“The hospital was supposed to be completed in three year but it couldn’t receive the desired flow of funds and went into hibernation till 2013 when a chief minister from the same district went for it,” sources said.

They said that establishment of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical College Peshawar announced by the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1988 remained in limbo till three years ago when its staff was transferred to Nowshera Medical College.

Health facility to start treating patients within a month

PPP remained in power in the province many times but it failed to materialise the project, they said.

“The hospital, constructed at a cost of Rs2 billion, has been completed. Half of the 500 sanctioned posts including that of doctors and nurses have been filled,” Prof Mohammad Tahir, director of the project, told Dawn.

He said that the hospital would have 250 beds. The new and old district headquarters hospitals would be treated as one, with both serving teaching facilities for Nowshera Medical College, he added.

“We are waiting for laundry section and installation of central sterilisation system, which will take a month,” said Prof Tahir. He said that Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) was carrying out an inspection of the college next week. “The team will also visit the DHQs to examine the available facilities for medical students and the patients there, a pre-requisite for granting recognition,” he added. Prof Tahir, head of plastic surgery department at Hayatabad Medical Complex, said the college would induct 100 students per year. Students have been selected in the last entrance tests for public sector medical colleges, but their admission is subject to PMDC’s recognition.

“We have conveyed level of our preparedness in a presentation to PMDC last month. We have followed rules to be able to get recognition. The points, raised by PMDC regarding DHQ and college, have been addressed,” he said.

Prof Tahir said that government had allotted 300-kanal land to the college, one of the PMDC’s requirements. The college, presently housed in a portion of DHQ building, would be shifted to the new premises next year, he added.

“We have also regular annual budget released by government, which is also a condition of the council,” said Prof Tahir. He said that a grant of Rs180 million was being spent on renovation, repairs, demolition, constructions etc, and expansion of facilities to old DHQ and establishing schools of paramedics and nurses to meet shortage of technical professionals.

He said that it was obligatory on the staff to do institution-based practice because they were hired under Medical Teaching Institution Reforms Act, 2015 and infrastructure was in place in the purpose-built hospital.

“The hospital will directly benefit 1.3 million people of the district and surrounding areas. It will have 15 specialties, eight each in medical and gynea departments, four in ENT, nephrology and cardiology,” said Prof Tahir.

He said that they would run their diagnostic services like MRI and CT scan and cleanliness are being given under Public Private Partnership programme.

The partner organisations would ensure round-the-clock services to patients at government’s rates, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2016