KHYBER: Continuous bickering between the administration of district headquarters hospital Landi Kotal and local grid station over non-payment of millions of rupees of electricity bills is adversely affecting the functioning of the health facility.

The power supply company had long been accusing health authorities of reneging on payment of outstanding arrears to the tune of Rs220 million against Landi Kotal hospital. Resultantly, the hospital is subjected to 20-hour power loadshedding on daily basis.

The hospital administration, however, argued that it had deposited Rs70 million some time ago while the rest of the disputed amount in arrears was withheld by the hospital on the pretext of verification of actual bill by grid station authorities.

The hospital authorities had also demanded of the grid station to install electricity meter inside the hospital so that actual reading could be recorded every month as it feared that the grid staff had issued inflated bills to the health facility with at least six out of the total 11 doctors’ houses being closed for a long time.

Power supply company has a claim of Rs220m arrears against the health facility

Grid station authorities had also accused the hospital administration of providing illegal connections to private entities outside the hospital. The hospital management had vehemently denied the allegations.

Sources in the hospital told this scribe that the issue was still unresolved. They said that health delivery system was badly impacted due to excessive loadshedding as the power supply company was not willing to curtail it duration till payment of arrears by the hospital.

Doctors and paramedics at the hospital told this scribe that surgeries could not be conducted at operation theatre as they could not sterilise surgical instruments owing loadshedding while most of people were reluctant to admit their patients at the hospital for want of electricity.

Doctors said that most of the time they examined patients with hand torch or mobile phone torch due to power suspension while the patients suffered owing to prolonged delay in their laboratory tests.

They said that Sehat Sahulat card system was revived but the facility could not be utilised owing to power outages and most of the applicants preferred to go to Peshawar for availing the said facility.

“We get only four hours of electricity and that too at night time when neither surgeries can be conducted, nor necessary treatment can be provided to patients as they insist on home medication rather than being admitted to the hospital in the cold weather,” said doctors.

However, they admitted that a special line was provided by the grid station to operation theatre but the wire used for the supply was so weak that it could not take the load of electricity needed for sterilisation machine.

The doctors said that ailing children were the most affected as they were required to be kept and treated at a warm and comfortable place in hospital which could not be arranged due to prolonged power suspension.

They said that they recently raised the issue with a visiting team of health department but nothing had happened since then as the department too was faced with acute financial issues.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2025