PESHAWAR: The shortage of facilities at district headquarters hospital in Lower Dir has been affecting the residents of five districts, who are dependent for their medical treatment on the hospital that has also been declared a teaching facility for Timergara Medical College (TMC).

Officials in health department told Dawn that a request was submitted to finance department to sanction staff for the hospital but its response was still awaited. The hospital spread over 22.5 acres was upgraded to Category-A in 2002.

It serves about eight million people of Dir Upper and Lower, Bajaur and Chitral Upper and Lower. The health facility was declared a teaching hospital last year for TMC. However, services at the hospital are yet to be upgraded.

Officials said that it had 30 specialist doctors against 41 specialists required for a teaching hospital, 147 nurses against 387 and 180 paramedics against 195. Likewise the hospital has 133 Class-IV employees against 150 and 22 sweepers against 55 sweepers required for a teaching facility.

Officials say request for grant is pending with finance dept

“TMC is in the process of inducting the first batch of 50 students but it is yet to get certain specialties like ophthalmology, gastroenterology, ICU, Cath Lab and lady doctor for ultrasound, required desperately by people,” they said. They added that the hospital had more male nurses than female ones, causing problems to women patients.

They said that authorities concerned were trying their level best to start TMC at the earliest in line with the instructions of Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi, who was given a presentation during his visit to Lower Dir regarding the college and obstacles standing in way of making it operational. “Finance department has been requested to approve the required positions,” they added.

In order to enhance the bed strength of the District Headquarters Teaching Hospital (DHQTH) from present 430 beds to fulfill the 500-bed requirements of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) for affiliation to medical college, the notification regarding the affiliation of two more hospitals promised by the government wasn’t issued as yet.

TMC was announced 10 years ago but it remained non-operational owing to shortage of faculty and required number of hospital beds. The chief minister had issued instructions to health department to notify Category-C Hospital Samarbagh and Category-D Hospital Lal Qila as teaching hospitals for TMC to raise the number of beds to 530 but the directives were not met.

Lately, the government appointed hundreds of doctors on fixed pay but only two, both dental surgeons instead of medical officers, were deployed at the district headquarters hospital.

Sources in health secretariat told this scribe that several inquiries were conducted that proved that massive corruption in TMC and district headquarters hospital but responsible people remained free.

They said that another issue faced by the hospital was that 90 per cent of doctors were qualified specialists but they worked as medical officers whereas private medics were working in the hospital since long. They said that several people were identified and banned from entering the hospital as they used to perform duty for regular staff. However, the main issue was sanctioning of the required posts to pave way for launching the long-awaited TMC, they added.

Sources said that work on construction of TMC was begun in 2015.

It was completed in December last year but the plan to induct first batch of students was yet to see light of the day owing to shortage of funds. Recently, faculty was recruited but it still needed progress on clinical and administrative sides to get recognised as medical college, they added.

Officials said that the hospital had 30 per cent uncovered area where health department wanted the government to build the required buildings, laboratories, skills lab, forensic museum, day-care, offices, cafeteria, library, utilities and allied facilities.

They said that request for grant was pending with finance department.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2026