RAWALPINDI: After announcing to turn four hospitals in the province into model ones in the budget 2016-17, the Punjab government delayed the work until the next fiscal year due to a shortage of funds.

The government had announced to allocate Rs24.5 billion to upgrade the four hospitals in Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad.

In Rawalpindi, Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) was selected for the project but the work could not be started as the government had to launch other schemes, especially the construction of roads from farms to markets.

A senior official of the health department told Dawn that the government’s announcement was not communicated to the department on time.

In current fiscal budget, Punjab govt had announced to make four hospitals into model ones

“When we received the directives, we started a survey of the hospitals but by that time a major portion of funds available with the government had been spent on other projects,” he said.

The official said the finance department was looking for funds to be saved from other projects but later decided to launch the project in the next year.

PTI Punjab north former general secretary Zahid Kazmi said the provincial government announced mega projects for the health sector but never completed them.

“No medicines are available in government hospitals in Rawalpindi and other cities and the patients have to go to private laboratories for pathological tests as no machinery in the hospitals are in a working condition,” he said.

“The PML-N leaders go to London and Dubai for medical treatment and have no interest in developing a proper healthcare system for the poor,” he said.

Young Doctors Association Punjab chairman Dr Haider Akhter said the government had ignored the improvement of facilities in the hospitals.

“The BBH needs an MRI machine, repair of the building, doctors hostel, ICUs and CCUs and the laboratory but no funds are available,” he said.

He said YDA’s requests for the improvement of pathological laboratories, machines and condition of the wards were ignored by the government.

When contacted, BBH Medical Superintendent Dr Arshad Ali Sabir said work on the project to turn the hospital into a model one would be started in the next fiscal year.

He said the health department had completed a survey to identify problems of the hospitals and ways to improve the building and machinery.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2017