PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has decided to manage the newly-established Fountain House by itself for the time being to secure governmentfunding to make it fully operational.

It will see later whether or not to convert the mental health centre into an autonomous medical teaching institution, according to officials.

They told Dawn that the provincial government recently shifted the Sarhad Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases (SHPD) from the central jail’s premises to the newly-built modern Fountain House (FH) building in Hayatabad amid requests from senior psychiatrist to implement the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act (MTIRA) and form a board of governors to ensure the facility’s speedy operations.

The sources said that the health department had agreed in principle to cover FH by MTIRA in order to fast-track its operations, including hiring of staff, purchasing of equipment and upgrading. However, FH will be operated by the department, which willenforce MTIRA there only after it becomes fully operational and adequately staffed.

Officials say decision to turn mental health centre into MTI to be taken later

The sources said the health adviser supported financial and administrative autonomy for FH through the enforcement of MTIRA and the subsequent formation of BoG, but the decision was changed to ensure the FH gets the required funding from the government.

“We want FH to stand on its own feet before granting it the status of MTI as there is a need for huge funding and staffing, which requires the supervision of the health department,” an officialtold Dawn.

He said the government would lose interest if FH was made MTI for being left with very little influence on it, as most powers were enjoyed by BoG.

The officials said that the architects of MTIRA wanted zero political roles in the affairs of 10 MTIs in the province, so thegovernmentwould take interest in non-MTI institutions regarding issuance of funds.

They said the best option was to allow FH to begin operationsunder the health department.

The officials said in the first step, the government wanted to recruit a chief executive officer for Fountain House (also known as Institute of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences) and complete the hiring and procurement process through the health department.

They said FH had been built at the request of psychiatrists, who wanted to make it a modern facility and develop all specialties there.

The officials said SHPD, established in 1854 inside the Central Jail Peshawar, managed patients only, without anysub-specialty.

The local psychiatrists, however, argued that a mental hospital didn’t exist on the premises of a prison anywhere in the world with KP being the only exception.

“As per initial plan, the provincial government is required to notify FH as a teaching hospital, appoint its chief executive and constitute BoG so that the plan to make it a teaching institute can be materialised,” an official said.

He said that most hospitalsintroduced new specialties only after their notification as MTIs.

The official, however, said the teaching hospitals had developed only a few specialties under the health department.

“Psychiatrists have been persuading the government to extend MTIRA to FH and pave the way for its growth, including training of different specialties in the field of psychiatry. We needchild psychiatriststo deal with patients and improve the outcome of treatment,” he said.

The official said most local patients requiring specialised services continued to go toother provinces.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2025