HARIPUR: The provincial government has directed the district administration to use the frozen funds of the Health Management Board to provide free dialysis facility to kidney patients.

Official sources told Dawn on Sunday that over 30 patients were getting free dialysis a few months ago under a public-private partnership programme.

They said the district headquarters hospital, Haripur and the Abbottabad International Medical College had signed a 10-year agreement with the health department in 2009, under which, the private medical college was to pay 20 per cent of admission and tuition fee annually to the DHQ hospital, which would in return provide teaching and building facilities to the college.

The Abbottabad medical college had also agreed to establish a paramedics training institute on the premises of the hospital.

The college’s management, despite reservations from certain quarters, continued to pay the funds to hospital till the expiry of agreement on June 30, 2019, and the Health Management Board, headed by the Haripur deputy commissioner had hired 15 medical officers and 15 Class-IV workers for the hospital.

Frozen funds of Health Management Board to be used for the purpose

The leftover funds were spent on improving facilities in the hospital, including provision of free dialysis treatment to patients.

However, when the MoU expired, funds to the tune of Rs40 million were frozen, but the DHQ hospital continued to provide free dialysis to patients. But, a private supplier stopped provision of dialysis kits and medicines abruptly as the health authorities failed to clear liabilities worth Rs7.1 million.

As makeshift arrangement, the hospital did not stop dialysis facility, but entertained only those patients who purchased dialysis kits from market.

On the patients’ complaints, deputy commissioner Nadeem Nasir had written to the secretary health to either disburse funds to the hospital for clearing liabilities of private supplier, or allow the district administration to use the frozen funds of Rs40 million of Health Management Board for the purpose.

Meanwhile, when contacted, the deputy commissioner told Dawn that the provincial government had allowed the district administration to utilise the frozen funds for providing medical facilities to the patients.

He said the private medical college was interested in reviving the MoU for better health facilities to the poor patients.

MAN ELECTROCUTED: A man was electrocuted in a remote village of Khanpur the other day. Gulzar Abbasi, 55, of Seri Hilly village was removing a fault on an electricity line when he suffered an electric shock. He was taken to a nearby basic health unit, where doctors pronounced him dead, police and family said.

The family said the Pesco officials did not turn up to remove the fault from the line despite repeated complaints.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2020