RAWALPINDI: The administration of the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) has finally made the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system (HVAS) of the hospital functional.

The HVAS was installed at the HFH in 2006 but it took two years for the administration to make it functional. Soon after its opening in 2008, however, the pillars of the plant room were damaged after which the system stopped working.

The provincial government failed to fix the responsibility for the damage to the pillars on either the communication and works department or the company that had installed the plant. As a result, the hospital had to install new air-conditioners in the rooms and wards but it also did not work properly.

A senior official of the hospital told Dawn that the hospital administration and the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) contacted the provincial health department but the latter wanted to fix the responsibility for the failure of the system before releasing any funds to make it functional again.

Plant that was damaged soon after its installation in 2008 finally repaired through private donations

He said during the last six years a number of inquiries were conducted but the government failed to fix the responsibility.

He said the HVAS was installed in the hospital in 2006 at a cost of Rs20 million but it needed an additional Rs2.8 million to become functional. He said the company that installed the plant was of the view that it had provided specifications to the communication and works department for the construction of the building for the plant but the latter failed to adopt the needed measures. As a result, the pillars of the room were damaged soon after the installation of the plant.

Upon this, he said, the RMC board of governors decided to collect donations from philanthropists to run the plant.

“HFH Medical Superintendent Dr Raja Shafique collected the funds from different donors and the chairman of the RMC board of governors, Dr Mohammad Aslam, contributed Rs2 million,” he said.

When contacted, Dr Shafique confirmed to Dawn that the HVAS would be operational within a few days as the company had been given the money to repair it.

He said the system as being made operational through the donation money while the provincial government would release funds after the fact-finding committee submits its report.

He said with the HVAS the hospital administration had to spend extra money on cooling the hospital rooms and wards with small air-conditioning units.

He said the electricity bills increased in the summer and there was no option but to make the system operational. He said after the matter was brought into the notice of the health department, it gave permission to collect donations to make the plant operational.

Published in Dawn September 5th, 2016