KOHAT: The Hangu mayor has assailed the health authorities for failing to repair a dysfunctional X-ray machine in the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital and for not providing the X-ray films at the District Headquarters Hospital, forcing patients to get the same done in private clinics at exorbitant rates.

Talking to Dawn on phone here on Saturday, Hangu mayor Amir Ghani lamented that he had met secretary health Mehmood Aslam and the caretaker government officials, but they had been plainly refusing release of funds for the purpose citing ‘severe financial crunch’.

Mr Ghani also regretted that the government wasn’t releasing funds to the local body members to carry out development works.

He said the two hospitals were overburdened as they also catered to the patients from adjoining Orakzai and Kurram districts.

The mayor also expressed anguish over shortage of medicines at the hospital pharmacies. He said patients had to be referred to private facilities where they were charged between Rs500 to Rs600 for an X-ray.

When contacted, district health officer Nawab Ali said paucity of funds was the reason behind the delay in repair of the X-ray machine at the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital. He estimated the cost to be around Rs700,000. He said the machine had developed a fault four months ago.

He also said the District Headquarters Hospital had been facing shortage of X-ray films for half a year, forcing the management to purchase some films from the market with the meager resources.

MEETING: Members of the Kohat tehsil council through unanimously adopted resolutions have demanded winding up the Water Supply and Sanitation Company for ‘poor’ performance and reverting its staff back to the tehsil municipal administration.

The meeting chaired by presiding officer Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was held here the other day. Chairmen of neighbourhood and village councils were also in attendance.

The meeting also agreed to increase the tax on TMA 600 leaseholders, who had been running shops at negligible rates for decades.

Member Malik Iqbal called for continuing with the private fruit and vegetable market and stopping ‘harassment’ of its owner by the tehsil municipal administration staff.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2023