PESHAWAR, Nov 11: Unplanned construction at the Khyber Teaching Hospital has been causing hardships to the patients, doctors at the hospital told Dawn on Monday.

The Khyber Teaching Hospital, spreads over an area of 560,000 sq-ft, was commissioned in November 1976, with 26 units. The 1200-bed hospital, which was built at a cost of Rs129.742 million in seven years time, now has 32 units.

Lately, unplanned construction in certain wards to make more room by the doctors and hospital administration has been causing great hardships to the patients.

The worst sufferers are those who are brought to the casualty ward for emergency treatment. The door of the casualty ward, which connects it with the main block, has been closed for unknown reasons for some time and the patients have to take painfully long routes to reach the medical and surgical wards.

“The administration has ordered closure of the door, because it was being used by people other than the patients. It is true that patients suffer a great deal but we cannot open the same,” said a doctor at the casualty ward.

He said children who needed to be shifted to the children ward were forced to take a longer route which often put them in distress.

Moreover, construction of a wall between the operation theatre and the children wards has been a cause of embarrassment not only for the patients but also for the hospital staffers as the wall makes it difficult to the doctors and other staff to visit the wards to treat patients.

The surgical ICU, built in front of the operation theatre, has two doors which are not easily accessible to the patients. According to the doctors, they faced problems in shifting the critically-ill patients from wards to the ICU, because of the construction of unnecessary doors.

“One has to be very quick when a patient’s condition is serious, and, therefore, there is no need for two doors which hinder the smooth shifting of patients,” said a junior registrar at the surgical ward.

The X-ray department also has two doors, one of which remains closed in the morning shift and the patients are forced to use one door which creates problems in rush hours.

The most worrisome situation has been created by the doctors in surgical, medical, ENT and Eye wards by building counters and partitions without taking permission from the hospital administration.

Each and every ward has got small wooden counters which are used by the doctors, paramedics and nurses. Most of those counters have been replaced by big ones which have turned the wards into Hujras (guest houses) as the doctors and their visitors sit in these counters gossiping till late which haunts the patients, a patient said.