The three government-run hospitals in the garrison city do not have many important departments such as cardiology, paediatrics, oncology, neurology, dermatology and a department for infectious diseases.

All the three government hospitals — Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital — do not have an oncology department and cancer patients have to go to private hospitals, where they are also charged more for laboratory services. Of the three hospitals, only DHQ Hospital has a neurology department.

A senior HFH doctor told Dawn the hospital refers neurology patients to private clinics as the hospital did not have doctors who can treat their illnesses.

The cardiology departments in all three hospitals are not functional and angiographies are not conducted at the state-run hospitals either. An angiogram machine was installed at HFH in 2003 which was not made functional due to lack of staff and doctors to operate it.

A dermatology department was started in BBH but the dermatologist does not have the proper equipment for carrying out examinations and the remaining two hospitals do not even have a dermatologist.

There are no paediatric surgeons in all three hospitals, through children wards were established in all the hospitals.

Mohammad Kamal said he had come to the garrison city from Kahuta to consult with a specialist regarding his diabetes and had found the city’s government hospitals do not have specialists at all. He then had to go to a private hospital for treatment, which was costly. If proper facilities and services were available at government hospitals, private hospitals would not charge high fees, he said.

A resident of Mohanpura, Sohail Malik said he had taken his father to all the three government hospitals for treating his bone problems to find there were no orthopaedic surgeons in BBH and they had to wait six days for the surgery.

A senior official at the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) told Dawn these problems will soon be addressed as the college will be upgraded to a university and will get more departments.

He said the pathology department will soon get new machines after getting funds from the Punjab government the next fiscal year.

However, Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab Chairman Dr Haider Akhtar said the provincial government was not willing to improve the condition of the province’s hospitals because it wanted to privatise the health sector.

In the last nine years, the government has not yet established a children’s hospital in the city where paediatric cardiology and surgery departments can be set up.

The government hospitals lack proper neurology, cardiology, urology, oncology and other departments or specialised services for treating chest and lung diseases, he said, and that patients have to be referred to CMH or private hospitals.

He said there were no trauma centres in the three government hospitals in the city and patients either have to be taken to private hospitals or the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad.

He said the YDA had been raising the issue of the lack of facilities at government run hospitals in the province but the issue was being ignored.

Former general secretary of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf North Punjab Zahid Kazmi said the provincial government could not improve the condition of hospitals across the province. He said the PTI was chalking out a plan for when it comes in power and that the party will then spend more on health and education, as it was doing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa according to him.

He said the service structure of doctors and paramedical staff should be improved and new machinery added to provide better healthcare facilities.

Former PML-N MNA Malik Shakil Awan said the provincial government had established a cardiology institute in Rawalpindi which is why there is no need to include it in other hospitals. Everyone can get a specialised service at this hospital, he said.

The government is also constructing a new hospital for urology, he said, and that Rs2.5 billion has been allocated for a mother and child hospital which will be completed by the end of this year.

The Punjab government wants to improve the healthcare system, he said, and is spending millions of rupees in many hospitals and healthcare facilities in villages and small towns so that the three hospitals in the city will not be so overburdened.

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 23rd, 2017