PESHAWAR: The federal government has ignored the request of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa request for construction of specialised hospitals in the province, according to officials.

They said that they had been informed through a letter by the federal government in September last year that the prime minister had decided to build 43 hospitals in all provinces to improve patients’ care. “The centre asked us for provision of land for the facilities,” they said.

The officials said that in response to the letter, the provincial government had asked the centre to construct two hospitals for specialised treatment but the request had fallen on deaf ears as there was no allocation for the purpose in the current year budget.

However, the provincial government communicated to the federal government that it could not pay price of the land owing to financial crisis and the latter should bear the entire cost of the hospitals.

Federal govt had decided in 2016 to set up 43 health facilities across the country

The officials said that former prime minister announced establishment of the hospitals following severe criticism by the opposition parties that government was not paying heed to the healthcare issues of the people.

They said that centre was supposed to set up healthcare institutions in Chitral, Charsadda, Mansehra, Haripur, Battagram and Hangu districts but the provincial government also wrote a letter wherein it asked for construction of specialised facilities.

“We have general hospitals in every district of the province, therefore, we asked the centre that we needed hospitals where the people could get tertiary care services,” said the officials.

They said that provincial government conveyed to the centre that the province needed specialised facilities to provide services to people in their own districts but one year passed and there was no word from the centre.

The officials said that there was no allocation for setting up hospitals in any province by the centre.

They said that provincial government had requested the centre that it required specialised hospital in the backward district of Battagram that could also facilitate the residents of Mansehra and Kohistan.

They said that another was needed in Charsadda to cater to the needs of locals as well as patients from the adjacent Mardan and Swabi districts while another was required in Hangu that could also receive patients from the southern districts.

The officials said that KP also wanted a specialised health facility in Haripur. They said that the province also requested for a specialised hospital in Chitral in response to the centre’s proposal to build a 500-bed hospital there and argued that a district hospital already existed in the district and there was no need for a general hospital.

“We proposed a specialised hospital in Boni area of Chitral but there was no response from the centre,” said the officials. They said that centre had pledged that the facilities would be built by 2018.

They said that KP was ready to collaborate with the federal government for setting up hospitals where people could get specialised services for diseases of kidney, hepatitis, diabetes and burns etc.

The officials said that at the time of announcement, the plan seemed ambitious because it was not possible to materialise it owing to involvement of massive funds.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2017