PESHAWAR: The decision to hand over Government General Nishtarabad Hospital Peshawar to health department after the expiry of contract with a private organisation is likely to result in disruption of medical treatment services, according to sources.

The building was completed in 2014 but it remained in disuse till 2019 when it was handed over to a private organisation, Medical Emergency Resilience Foundation (Merf), which made it opertaional through IRC funds as Covid-19 hospital.

After the end of the pandemic, it was converted into general hospital and it started operations under World Bank-sponsored Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Investment Project (KP-HCIP) in 2022 according to public-private partnership mode by Merf.

However, the contract period with WB, sponsor of the project, will end on June 30 and the government has decided to hand it over the hospital to health department to run it.

Contract with private organisation to run the facility will end on June 30

Health Minister Khaliqur Rehman told Dawn that June 30 was very near and probably the hospital would be run by health department. “The decision to bring it under health department is still pending,” he added.

Health Secretary Shahidullah Khan, when contacted, said that the hospital would be handed over to district health officer (DHO) after expiry of contract with Merf. “Services will not be disrupted,” he added.

Built in 2018, it was supposedly to be a breast cancer and hepatitis hospital according to its PC-I. However, the health facility was made functional as Covid-19 hospital to cope with the increasing load of patients.

Over the past few years, it has been developed and presently has 110 beds with 250 staffers, including 45 doctors operating round-the-clock.

Sources said that the government’s decision to run it through health department would disrupt services as the department was already short of doctors and other staff to be deployed there.

“On the request of Merf, a summary was sent to provincial cabinet for approval stating that the government should allow Merf to run it for a couple of months and meanwhile outsource it through Health Foundation but that was not approved,” they said.

They said that more than 18,000 patients visited the OPD of the hospital per month. “It will be difficult for health department to continue operations there once the private entity leaves it,” they added.

Doctors at the hospital said that its closure would have adverse impact on healthcare delivery in the provincial capital as it had already reduced burden of patients on Lady Hospital and Molvi Ameer Shah Memorial Hospital. The hospital has nine specialists, who examine patients at an OPD chit of Rs10.

The OPD is open round-the-clock and patients get free paediatrics, gynaecology, pathology, anaesthesia and medical services besides emergency arrangements for critically-ill and injured people.

It is the only donor-funded hospital where patients get mammography services and so far more than 1,000 patients have been provided screening services and referred to specialists for further management.

“On one hand 72 hospitals are being outsourced by health department and on the other a facility outsourced seven years ago is being handed over to health department again,” said sources. They said that the hospital covered about 300,000 people.

The representatives of Merf will meet health minister today (Monday). In January, health department had sought proposals to ensure sustainability and exit strategy for the hospital, aimed at keeping healthcare service delivery uninterrupted.

KMU Hospital and Research Centre (KMUH&RC) had also expressed willingness to run the facility as it has services for communicable and non-communicable diseases besides oncology services.

KMU has complete setup for treatment of cancer and diabetes bedsides providing state-of-the-art diagnostic services to patients that could be a potential candidate to run the hospital. It has also family medicine department where primary healthcare model can be piloted.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2026