PESHAWAR, March 1: The District Headquarters Hospital, Karak, functioning in two separate buildings, is without necessary facilities and most of its wards and sections nonoperational since its opening one year back.

The magnificent building of the 200-bed hospital, located at the deserted Karak Development Authority Township scheme, approximately six kilometres from the old hospital in the heart of Karak town, has eaten up millions of rupees and still appears to be least effective, according to a survey conducted by this scribe.

The indifference of the concerned authorities can seen from the fact that the new building, which was inaugurated by the NWFP’s Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah on March 27, 2001, was officially taken over by the provincial health department only in January this year - after a gap of over 10 months of its opening.

“The health delivery system has been badly impaired after the construction of the new health facility as the hospital administration shifted the equipment from the old hospital to furnish the new one,” said an official of the district administration.

“The construction of the new building has multiplied the miseries of the patients as most of the people, coming from the far-flung rural areas of the district, do not know where they would get hold of the concerned doctor - at the old hospital or the new one,” lamented a government servant, who had come from the federal capital to spend his Eidul Azha holidays at his village.

The man, who had brought his two sons for check-up to the new hospital, had to travel to Karak town to find antibiotics prescribed by the doctor.

“In the absence of a shuttle service between the two blocks of the hospital, patients have to spend between Rs50 and Rs 70 to reach from one block to the other,” said the disgruntled father.

The locked wards of the new health facility point to the sorry state at both the new and old hospitals, said a hospital employee, deploring the fact that the authorities stripped the old hospital of its equipment, but could not get the new facility going.

The two hospitals have only a few oxygen cylinders with no standby arrangement. In emergencies, patients’ attendants are required to make their own arrangements.

Only recently, the relatives of a man, who was brought with fatal injuries to the hospital had to borrow an oxygen cylinder from a denter’s workshop.

Apart from the Out-Patients Department, the outdated X-ray machines, two poorly-equipped operation theatres, a laboratory, the female surgical and male medical wards, are functioning at present.

The other sections of the hospital from the mortuary to the blood bank, ICU, CCU, stores and the laundry are either littered with low-quality beds and benches or are nonfunctional since its inauguration.

The hospital administration stripped the functioning health facility of its machinery, but failed to get the new hospital operational, said public representatives.

In the wake of growing public resentment, the administration decided to retain only child and gynaecology wards in the old building.

Terming the inauguration of the hospital an “eyewash”, the sources said at the time of the inauguration of the hospital equipment from the DHQ hospital, Hangu, was brought and displayed and then shifted it back after the ceremony.

The Executive District Officer (health), Dr Ajab Ali Bangash, when contacted, was evasive in replying to questions related to the hospital.

Similarly, the MS was reluctant to talk about the affairs of the hospital. However, he said that some equipments have recently been purchased for the hospital which would be installed after the purchase committee’s approval.

Giving reasons for the delay in taking over the hospital by the health department, the MS said that as the whole project involved huge public money, no official was ready to take over the charge and risk his career.

There are only three nurses for the three-storey hospital, with no other paramedical staff. To meet this shortage, the district health authorities have been deputing subordinate staff from rural health units for three months on turn.

This practice has also undermined the working of the minor health outlets, said the medical officer of a nearby basic health unit (BHU).

A doctor said that the nurses preferred not to come to the new hospital for it was situated quite out of the way.

 “The new DHQ hospital has turned out to be a bad example of political opportunism coupled with poor performance and lack of seriousness on the part of the concerned departments,” said a Karak-based lawyer on request of anonymity.