KOHAT: The civil society here has expressed outrage over referral of burns patients to Taxila despite its continuous protests and rallies since 2010 for provision of category-A facilities at the KDA teaching hospital.

The people from all walks of life here had been agitating against lack of category-A facilities and referral of patients to Peshawar and other hospitals.

However, they severely criticised the health department on social media when 10 severely burnt labourers were referred to Taxila for treatment the other day.

The labourers suffered burn injuries in a blast in a gypsum mine in Jatta Ismailkhel and they were brought to Kohat for treatment.

However, due to absence of facilities at the burns centre, built in 2008, they had to be referred.

When contacted, KDA hospital deputy medical superintendent Dr Hashim Khan said that they had been sending their demand for the burns centre to the government for years, but funds were not being released. He said it was duty of the MPs to allocate funds for such a big hospital in the region so that it could cater to the needs of the people by providing facilities such as CT scan and MRI.

He said that PC-1 had been prepared for the burns centre costing at least Rs10 million, including medicines and a demand for plastic surgeon, but the project hit snags due to Covid-19.

He said that category-A hospitals had been made part of the Minimum Health Service Delivery Project, but availability of funds was still the major problem.

OPEN COURT: Elders of Bosti tribe of Darra Adamkhel tribal subdivision at an open court the other denounced delay in reconstruction of a local dam, which was washed away in flash floods in 2017.

The elders Zar Mohammad, Laal Mohammad, Syed Asghar and Yaqoob asked the administration to also repair the Talab road. They also complained about absence of doctors at the livestock and basic health unit hospitals.

Additional deputy commissioner, Kohat district, Bashir Ahmed and assistant commissioner Haider Hussain listened to their grievances.

Meanwhile, a jirga of elders belonging to Togh Bala town opposed the construction of a planned playground on their fertile land and demanded its shifting to some barren area.

Former nazim Mohammad Raheem and councillors said on the occasion that they had been resisting construction of the ground for the last five years, but the government again started work on construction of boundary wall of the ground.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2020