PESHAWAR, July 6: Attendants of patients — local as well as those brought from remote areas — on Sunday complained about lack of facilities in major hospitals.

This correspondent counted over 50 people — mostly attendants of patients — braving hot weather with a few ceiling fans and four broken benches at the waiting room of a civil hospital here.

The presence of attendants is necessitated because of lack of provision of proper healthcare facilities, including medicines.

It is customary for the doctors to prescribe medicines, which are usually unavailable at the hospital dispensary.

Patients brought from remote areas because of lack of health facilities in their respective areas also require attendants.

Naqeeb Shah, sitting along with five of his relatives in the run-down waiting room of a major hospital here, said that he had been staying at the hospital for the past four days as doctors in Takht Bhai had refused to treat his wife because of the seriousness of her ailment. Mr Shah, a dispenser by profession, said that he had spent Rs24,000 on medicines and medical tests. “My wife is still in a serious condition," he lamented.

Khyber Teaching Hospital and Lady reading Hospital are two major civil hospital in the city. Patients are brought here from far-flung areas — even Afghanistan — because of the lack of medical specialists, medicines and equipments.

‘‘Doctors in district hospitals are unable to treat patients in critical conditions because of many factors, including lack of equipment. We are compelled to bring the patient to a hospital in the city,’’ another attendant from Mardan said.

Khanzada, who had brought his month-old son to the Khyber Teaching Hospital, had come all the way from Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He had spent Rs6,000 in the past four days and had been sleeping on the ground, waiting for his son to recover.

“Doctors are available (in Afghanistan) but my son could not be operated upon because of lack of adequate medical facilities and frequent electricity breakdowns. Then there is also the problem of fake medicines. So I had to bring my son here,” he said.

Gul Khar, an Afghan woman with a tumour hospitalized for the past 13 days, said: “I have spent all my money on medicines and medical tests. I’m left with nothing now”, she said.

Those, who come from far off places, spend thousands of rupees on buying medicines and expensive pathological tests despite the fact that they could not afford to spend so much.

Jamra Ali Khan, a poor farmer from Waziristan who had brought his wife for treatment, had been staying in the waiting room of the KTH for almost a week and had spent Rs12,000.

He said that he had to bring his wife here as there no doctor at his local hospital, adding that he was staying in the hospital’s waiting room because he had been left with no money to enable him to stay in a hotel.