HARIPUR, Oct 3: The District Headquarters Hospital Haripur, a negligibly delayed project, would start functioning partially by the end of October with a type C status, it is learnt.
According to official sources, the first phase of the 200-bed hospital will be made operational by the end of the current month after modifying the arrangement of beds in various departments.
It was reported that following growing complaints about lack of proper health facilities in Haripur, the health department decided to make the hospital operational by allotting it a C-grade status.
According to official sources, the department will start an OPD, children, medical and casualty department. The authorities have also approved 100 beds for three wards to be set up in pathology and radiology departments.
The source said that the provincial health department had also finalized appointment of 32 medical officers, paramedics and related staff for the hospital.
It may be recalled that in the wake of absence of quality health facility for the local population, due to which people were forced to shift 97 per cent of emergency cases to Abbottabad, the government had earmarked funds for the proposed DHQ Hospital in 1995.
The project, costing over Rs60 million, was formally inaugurated by the then chief minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, in January 1995, and as per schedule the first phase, comprising OPD, pathology, medical, children and casualty departments were to be completed by June 1996.
However, in view of the changed political setup the project could not be completed on time.
Despite the fact that there existed 41 BHUs, 2 civil hospitals, an officiating DHQ, (which had never been accepted as DHQ hospital officially by the department) and five RHCs in Haripur, the need for a DHQ hospital has always been felt badly. The present 72-bed officiating DHQ hospital was already facing shortage of staff and paucity of funds.
The present regime has earmarked Rs7.5 million for the completion of the first phase of the DHQ, which would enable the contractor to complete the project on time.