ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: Most of the quake injured admitted in the various relief medical camps are unwilling to go back to their areas despite being discharged from the hospitals.

“I have no home, no relatives and no village, where would I go? I am safe here and would not commit the mistake of returning to the devastated Bagh,” said 12-year-old Tauqeer Wajid, being treated in Sports Complex medical camp.

The little Tauqeer had had head injuries in the October 8 earthquake and was brought to Polyclinic hospital, and later shifted to the camp hospital. He was treated for seven days and is now sound and healthy. But now he is the victim of quake phobia.

The camp authorities have listed his name in discharged patients and he was asked to leave the facility but Tauqeer insists on living with his other colleagues undergoing treatment.

Similarly, in Iqbal Hall where the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has set up a relief medical camp with a capacity of accommodating 400 patients, most of the children after being treated do not want to leave the facility as they are provided food, water, shelter and an environment full of peace and love.

Mohsin Khan, a volunteer in the camp said there were 133 female, 134 children and 267 male in the hospital and out of the total 534 patients, about 70 were fit and had been discharged but they were reluctant to leave unless their collapsed houses were rebuilt by the government. “We are much worried about the problem because the inflow of patients increases day by day while the outflow is nil, and we fear the camp may run short of beds,” said Dr Ashraf Hamid in Iqbal Hall.

The patients admitted in other mini hospitals in the capital also have the same problem.

“Still, my injuries are fresh and I cannot even walk but the camp administration warns me daily to leave the place despite the fact that I need treatment,” another patient Gulzar Abbasi from village Dalai, Muzaffarabad complained.

However, some of the volunteers working in different medical camps alleged that some people pretend to be ill or injured were lying on the beds which caused an overload on the limited capacity of the relief hospital.

“In some camps a single injured is accompanied by six or seven family members who also demand food and beds which creates a burden that is why we ask them to leave the place,” the volunteer said.

It has been learnt that a huge number of local patients who are not quake victims are also admitted to government and private hospitals in order to be treated free of cost which has resulted in severe shortage of patient beds.

A prominent orthopaedic surgeon in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) told Dawn seeking anonymity that he faced every 20th patient in the last four days who was not injured in the October 8 quake. “I guessed them by the language they spoke I am sure they did not belong from the quake-hit areas but I treated them for the God’s sake,” the doctor maintained.

Meanwhile, Dr Ammanullah Khan in Polyclinic said it was an inhuman behaviour on the part of those pretending to be ill by reserving the hospital bed, which in fact was the right of the actual patient.

However, a volunteer in the medical camp of Aabpara hockey ground said they were distributing literature among the patients with the theme that if some patient is recovered from disease he should leave his bed for another injured who was desperately waiting for treatment.

He ensured that most of the patients after reading through the literature would vacate their beds if they were safe and okay.