PESHAWAR: Doctors at medical teaching institutions here have complained that visits by non-emergency patients are causing problems for the critically-ill or injured people at accident and emergency departments.

“We receive about 4,000 patients at the emergency department and half of them are those who don’t require urgent care and can be examined in OPDs. This causes problems to those who really need prompt services,” spokesperson for Khyber Teaching Hospital Sajjad Khan told Dawn.

According to him, the hospital has deputed enough staff members, including doctors, nurses and paramedics, at the accidents and emergency department (A&ED) to facilitate emergency patients but the workload of normal patients is adversely affecting those services.

He said the A&ED had got dedicated investigative sections as well as essential medicines to provide timely treatment to severely-ill people and those requiring more investigations were admitted to relevant wards for onward management.

Medics call for better public awareness to address issue

“This situation has persisted for a long time and many people indulge in quarrels with the staff,” he said.

The spokesperson said the hospital had requested routine patients to visit OPDs in morning shifts for examination but all such requests had fallen on deaf ears as most people came to A&ED from the nearby villages after getting free from routine work.

Health workers face a similar situation in Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex where the people are unable to get prescription slips at the A&ED’s counter due to large patient arrivals.

Spokesman for the LRH Mohammad Asim said on average, the hospital received around 3,000 patients in emergency daily but it had put in place a triage system where patients were filtered on the basis of the level of their illnesses and only serious ones were allowed to receive treatment.

“The normal patients are sent to OPDs but the main problem we face is unnecessary referral of patients from districts which have overburdened the emergency services,” he said.

Mr Asim said the hospital had highly-trained staff members for handling emergencies but better public awareness was required to ensure patients with routine ailments come to OPDs instead of A&ED.

He said LRH, being the biggest public hospital in the province, had all types of specialties where patients could be seen by relevant specialists provided they visited OPDs.

HMC, another MTI in Peshawar, also receives patients at the A&ED. However, it has also established a triage system to ensure that only serious patients get services.

“We receive about 10pc non-emergency cases despite the triage system,” an official from the HMC told Dawn.

He said the arrival of normal people negatively impacted the treatment of patients requiring prompt interventions and the people should realise it.

“People visiting the A&ED want to be administered analgesic injections free of cost. In an emergency, all medicines are given free of charge which is also an incentive that drives patients. We give priority to emergency patients as they deserve quick services,” he said.

Health experts said arrival of non-emergency patients coupled with referrals from the district hospitals had a big impact on the Peshawar-based MTIs where even the staff faced problems attending to patients.

They said often the serious patients complained about slow-paced services in MTIs because of the people who came without any need as they had actually normal ailments that could be treated in OPDs.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2025