KOHAT: Despite repeated promises by lawmakers the matters are deteriorating day by day at the emergency ward of Kohat divisional headquarters hospital.

The casualty ward presents a look of store room where there are no bed sheets and pillows while mattresses have completed their lifespan.

The tidy ones have been left for the visits of deputy commissioner and lawmakers when everything looks so fine.

The people have still to take their patients from the far-flung Kurram and Orakzai agencies to Peshawar because of the unavailability of facilities at the KDA hospital.

The hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Naseem Jan, told Dawn that he had made repeated appeals to the high-ups for provision of staff and necessary equipment, but to no avail.

The major problem being faced by patients is the reluctance of staff at the ward to call senior doctors in case of serious patients though under the rules the specialist doctors are supposed to be on call 24 hours.

Despite verbal promises by MNA Shehryar Afridi and the hospital administration the Echo, which is a must for heart patients in case of emergency, and ultrasound machines have not been provided in the emergency wards of both the KDA and the women and children hospitals.

MPA Ziaullah Khan, when contacted, said that he would himself talk to the hospital authorities who had assured him that no complaint would be received by him in future, but he should not put pressure on them. He said that now he would contact high officials to put the things right in the two hospitals.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2016