FAISALABAD: The Punjab government has decided to take up the 600-bed Children’s Hospital project vigorously and removed its focal person Prof Asghar Butt because of his poor performance.

Faisalabad DCO Noorul Amen Mengal has been designated as the new project director by the government with instructions to accelerate the work.

A three-member technical committee, comprising Prof Hina Ayesha, Dr Asghar Butt and Hafiz Mukhtar Randhawa, has also been constituted. The committee has been tasked with assisting the current project and the health department. Orders regarding the new project director and the committee have been issued by the Punjab government.

Govt’s claims of healthcare provision fall short

Two members of the committee, Dr Butt and Mr Randhawa, are former project directors of the Children’s Hospital.

Sources privy to the development told Dawn a meeting on the issue of the local Children’s Hospital was held in Lahore on Thursday in which causes of the delay in the project were discussed. The meeting decided to remove focal person Asghar Butt, head of the paediatrics ward of the Allied Hospital, who had failed to initiate work on the project even after receiving funds. The meeting was informed that Dr Butt had even failed to remove the fruit trees from the site.

Healthcare facilities for children are pathetic in the district and 3,309 children breathed their last at the overburdened paediatrics ward of the Allied Hospital in 2013. Keeping in view the miseries of child patients, the Punjab Medical College administration had decided to establish another paediatrics ward, headed by Prof Hina Ayesha.

The sources said the officials meeting in Lahore was informed that the land for the project had been allocated adjacent to the Government College University Faisalabad whose officials had also been creating hurdled to the project and deployed security guards at the gate of the project site, halting any chances of the start of the work. The Punjab government has divided the scheme in three phases and allocated Rs947 million for first phase. The Phase-I had also been included in ADP 2013-14 with an allocation of Rs55million.

Talking to Dawn, the DCO said a survey to initiate construction work had been started and the structure of the building would be completed within a year. He said Rs220million had been given initially and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had assured release of required funds without any delay.

The contractor and officials of the departments concerned had been mobilised with strict instructions to complete the project as soon as possible. He said a tender notice regarding removal of trees from the site had been issued to newspapers.Meanwhile, the DCO also chaired a meeting on Friday to review the Children’s Hospital project.

During the meeting, Dr Hafiz Mukhtar Randhawa, who is also the coordinator of Children’s Hospital project, said the hospital would get a status of the Institute of Child Heath for the post-graduation training facilities which would help produce more specialists.

Published in Dawn, July 19th , 2014