PESHAWAR: Pakistan Paediatrics Association has pinned hopes on the recently-announced Board of Governors for completion of Khyber Institute of Child Health (KICH) and its affiliated Children Hospital, which is yet to start full-fledged operations despite lapse of more than 13 years.

“We are hopeful that the inclusion of Prof Abdul Hameed in BoG will help to expedite work on KICH and Children Hospital, approved by federal government 12 years ago. The province desperately needs its completion because all provinces except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have dedicated child health institutes,” a senior member of the provincial chapter of Pakistan Paediatrics Association told Dawn.

He said that Prof Hameed, a former head of child health department at Khyber Medical College and Khyber Teaching Hospital, had stared the project to promote child health facilities in the province. He added that its completion was direly needed to pave way for preventive, curative and rehabilitation services for the children.

Last week, the government notified BoG for Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), which also overlooks KICH. The local paediatricians say that Prof Hameed, who has retired from government job, knows about the project since its initiation and could help its completion not only for better health services but also for the training of paediatricians.

In 2007, then MMA govt failed to avail US, Japanese grants; centre yet to release Rs2.2bn

According to another paediatrician, the governments of Japan and the USA had pledged $20 million and $35 million grants respectively for the project but the grants couldn’t be availed owing to

lack of interest on the part of the government. The USAID has also provided Rs750 million to procure equipment for the health facility that helped its partial launch.

In 2007, the then provincial government of Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal had allotted 20-kanal piece of land for Children Hospital adjacent to KICH and spent Rs500 million on renovation of the building.

The federal government had pledged to provide Rs2.209 billion in 2009 for the project but it didn’t release appropriate funds to complete the scheme within five years.

KICH, a training component, has started work at low level. The 200-bed hospital was supposed to be completed in June 2019, however, owing to paltry allocation by federal government the project didn’t see light of the day.

“With the inclusion of Prof Hameed in the BoG, there is a big hope of its completion,” said the paediatrician.

An office-bearer of PPA said that the two donors could have completed the project long ago but they wanted to purchase everything at their own and government’s policy of purchasing equipment at the lowest price through bidding was not acceptable to them.

The department wanted procurement of equipment according to government’s policy through tenders and approving the bidders giving the lowest rates, he said.

He said that during the Awami National Party government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Prof Hameed was removed as project director of KICH which led to its delay in its completion.

As a result, the children continued to suffer and they were referred to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi for specialised treatment. The paediatricians said that they had planned to start 17 super specialties in child health besides expanding the services to district level to collect data about diseases but they needed more funds for its completion.

Prof Abdul Hameed, who accepted the position reluctantly, conceded that he would strive for KICH and Children Hospital apart from promoting overall health services in collaboration with other members of BoG at HMC.

“In fact this is the sole reason why I agreed to stand for this position. This will give me leverage for KICH and Children Hospital project,” he said. He said that he was hopeful that government would provide funds for the project and the province would get the dedicated child health institute soon.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2021