RAWALPINDI: After pending the request of Benazir Bhutto Hospital for more than a year, the Punjab government has finally decided to provide 10 dialysis machines to the hospital.

The chief minister secretariat in a letter on Monday informed the BBH administration that the project to provide the dialysis machines to the hospital had been approved and the funds would be released soon.

It may be mentioned that the health department cannot approve the project and machinery without the final approval of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.  

The installation of minor machinery to C.T. scan machine requires the approval of the chief minister as there is a mechanism in the health department to check the requirement of the patients in hospitals.

The hospital administration had sent a request to the government through the health department that total 10 machines had been installed at the BBH seven years ago but seven of them were now out of order.

Seven of the 10 machines installed in the hospital a decade ago are now inoperative

A senior official at the BBH told Dawn that after failing to repair the machinery, the hospital administration requested former MNA Hanif Abbai to get approval for the purchase of the new machines.

He said Mr Abbasi managed to expedite the request and within a week the provincial government approved the project.

He said it would take a month to get the new machinery.

In the government-run hospitals, there are on charges for kidney patients to undergo dialysis but private hospitals charge Rs3000 to Rs5000 per session. Some patients have to undergo dialysis twice or thrice a week.

When contacted, BBH Medical Superintendent Dr Asif Qadir Mir confirmed that the government had intimated to them about the approval of the project, adding the hospital would get the 10 dialysis machines within a month.

He said the government had also provided a C.T. scan machine to the hospital which would start functioning next month.

However, he said the installation of the new machinery was a lengthy process. He said the hospital had not stopped the services to the kidney patients despite the fact that seven machines were out of order.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014