KOHAT: The KDA district headquarters hospital, which provides teaching facilities to the students of the local medical college, presents a picture of neglect with 75 posts of doctors lying vacant, including that of radiologist. Besides, the trauma centre still lacks key equipment such as CT scan and MRI machines.

The DHQ hospital caters to the needs of the areas up to Kurram and Orakzai Agencies and border towns of Shakardarra and Khushalgarh.

Talking to this correspondent, medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Raham Khan, said that at least 40 doctors were needed to be appointed on urgent basis for looking after the patients in the wards during three shifts.

He said that tenders for necessary machinery were being floated for the third time on public-private partnership under the government policy. He clarified that without the private investment certain projects could not be undertaken.

The trauma centre, which was constructed in 2009, is still without CT Scan, MRI and digital X-Ray facilities.

Dr Khan said that the equipment, which were available in private clinics and hospitals, was not a priority. He said that the government provided some funds from which 40 beds had been purchased for the trauma centre, but still Rs250 million was needed for buying key machinery for the centre.

He regretted that in medico-legal cases they had to send the patients to the police hospital and on their refusal referred them to the Lady reading Hospital, Peshawar. He said that appointment of a radiologist was one of their longstanding demands.

He said that 50 posts of medical officers of grade-17 were vacant while others were of grade-18 and grade-19.

Answering a question, he said that a significant improvement could be achieved in the health sector if sufficient staff was provided to the hospitals.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2017