RAWALPINDI: Just three new development projects will be initiated in Rawalpindi’s main hospitals in the 2019-20 fiscal year due to the provincial government’s financial constraints.

The government has also allocated funds for three ongoing projects initiated by the PML-N in its last budget, including the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Transplantation, the District Headquarters Hospital in Raja Bazaar and the Mother and Child Hospital in Murree.

The Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Transplantation will receive Rs500 million in the next fiscal year, followed by Rs860.34m in 2021 and Rs100m in 2022.

The project will likely need two more years to complete, and will be functional next year. Because of the slow pace of work, the total cost of the project has increased to Rs4.05 billion.

The government also allocated Rs215.38m for the DHQ Hospital in Raja Bazaar for the renovation of its building. This project was launched in 2018-19, and the last PML-N government in Punjab had allocated Rs75m to it last year.

The government has also planned two new projects for Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH).

It has allocated Rs918m to establish a neonatal block in the children’s ward at BBH, which will take three years to complete. The government will release Rs120m in 2019-20 and the remaining funds will be released in the next two years.

The second main project is the provision of lacking facilities in the HFH children, gynaecology and obstetrics departments. The government has allocated Rs365.86m, of which Rs185m will be released in the coming fiscal year and Rs180.86m will be released in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

The third project is to upgrade the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology at a cost of Rs2.5bn. A new setup will be added for the treatment of paralysis patients, and the institute will be renamed the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology and Vascular Diseases.

The government will release Rs300m in the coming fiscal year in this regard, and the remaining funds will be released over the next three years.

A senior official from Rawalpindi Medical University told Dawn the university had also recommended installing new machinery in the city’s three main hospitals. He said the government agreed and has allocated funds to replace machinery across the province, and the district will receive its share from that fund.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2019