PESHAWAR, Feb 8: The United Nations High Commission for Refugees will provide Rs90 million for the establishment of a hospital for Afghan children and women, officials said.

They told Dawn here on Friday that the UN agency and Japan International Cooperation Assistance would provide financial aid to the City Development and Municipal Department (CDMD) for the establishment of a 120-bed hospital at the Roadways House building.

Earlier, the UN agency had abandoned the project due to paucity of funds. The project was, however, revised following the influx of Afghan refugees into the NWFP in 2002 as a result of the US ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan.

The proposed hospital, the officials said, would cater to the needs of Afghan women and children as well as the local population.

The government has proposed to convert the building into a hospital, but the project could not begin due to shortage of funds.

After reaching an understanding with the UNHCR the district government started renovation work of the building, that once housed a general transport bus depot.

The officials said that the proposed hospital would reduce rush of patients to the public sector hospitals in the city.

According to figures of the health department, NWFP, the presence of Afghan refugees had put a negative impact on the health sector of the province.

The provincial health department roughly spends Rs336.485 million on the health care of the refugees in four tertiary hospitals.

In addition to this Rs94.109 million was spent in 14, out of 23 districts, which came to 33.72 per cent of the total hospital sector budget of the province.

The Hayatabad Medical Complex and the Lady Reading Hospital, the two major health care centres of the provincial metropolis, receive 48 per cent and 53 per cent of Afghan Refugee patients, respectively.

Besides, the Afghan Commissionerate annually provides a sum of Rs9 million to three hospitals of Peshawar, including the Khyber Teaching Hospital, HMC and LRH, to minimise the burden on the provincial exchequer.

After the completion of the Roadways House Hospital project the Afghan Commissionerate would suspend allocation of funds to tertiary hospitals of the province, an official of the commissionerate said.