HARIPUR: Public sector health facilities here are proving insufficient for residents, especially women and children, forcing their majority to go to private centres for consultation and treatment on payment.

Private clinics have become a thriving business in the absence of a fully-equipped hospital for women and children, according to residents.

In the last few years, the government has invested billions of rupees in infrastructure development and upgradation in the district, but the health sector, especially the care of women and children, has been largely neglected.

The 210-bed district headquarters hospital, which took over a decade to be shifted to a new building, has 34 paediatric beds and 10 nursery cabins, while there are 30 beds in gynaecological wards and 15 in labour rooms.

Private clinics become thriving business

Women and children make up 30–35 per cent of the 2,000-plus visitors to outpatient departments daily, but beds at the hospital aren’t enough for them.

Independent experts insist that Haripur is one of the top revenue-generating districts in the province but lacks proper healthcare facilities for women and children due to a long delay in the operationalisation of the Women and Children Hospital and other factors.

After its relocation to the new building, the DHQ hospital’s old structure was demolished and bifurcated into the Haripur Trauma Centre, 1122 Centre and Women and Children Hospital.

The project to rebuild the 120-bed Women and Children Hospital was approved under the annual development programme 2017-18 at the cost of Rs286.596 million and executed in 2018. It was to be completed by 2021 but was delayed for one reason or another, with the cost escalating to Rs567 million.

“It is not our fault, nor can the contractors be completely blamed for the delay. Actually, it happened because of the frequent structural changes proposed by the health department and a foreign organisation that will donate medical equipment,” an official of the C&W, the project execution agency, told Dawn.

He said the project got into the slow lane due to the prolonged financial crisis and frequent political changes in the province, but even then, almost 90 per cent of the civil work had been completed.

The official said the installation of two elevators, a cooling and heating system, a biomedical gas facility, and an improved backup system also contributed to the delay and cost escalation.

He said the remaining work, which included the installation of a power supply and backup system, cooling and heating, roads, and lawns, could be completed in two to three months if the department released the required Rs100 million funding.

The official said the local PTI leaders, who got the project approved, should arrange those funds for the early functioning of the health facility.

When contacted, medical superintendent of the DHQ hospital Dr Mohsin Raza Turabi said the “statement of new expenses” to hire staff members for the new hospital was almost ready to be sent to the provincial government for approval.

He said after the health department formally got hold of the building, the gynaecology and children departments would be shifted to it, making the space available for the neurosurgery, nephrology, and urology departments.

Dr Turabi said he hoped that the W&C Hospital would help increase the access of women and children to healthcare in the district, reduce the DHQ hospital’s workload, and considerably improve services.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2024