PESHAWAR: Only 10pc of beds for children in NWFP hospitals: Promises for child hospital yet to be fulfilled
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, March 18: Children are the worst affected due to lack of healthcare facilities in public sector hospitals in the NWFP. A paediatrician told Dawn on Saturday that there were only 195 beds for children in periphery hospitals, out of 3,052 beds, which showed apathy of the authorities towards 10 million children of the province.
He said about 65 per cent of patients in rural areas were children, but because of lack of facilities and trained staff, they were suffering most.
In the teaching hospitals of the province out 3,000 of beds only 300 were reserved for children, he said, adding that their was need for a full-fledged child unit in the province where children could be provided treatment by specialists.
In most of the cases, parents were forced to take children to Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad even for mental, cardiac, kidney and surgical problem, which not only deteriorate the condition of children patients but also made their treatment expensive.
Except for the NWFP, all the three provinces have well-equipped hospitals for children where specialists of every field are available. “One per cent of the children are born with one defect or the other, but we don’t have specialised treatment facilities and general paediatricians handle all such cases,” said a senior child specialist.
With the help of the existing facilities diagnosis and treatment of complicated ailments were not possible, doctors argued.
They said it was ironic that a large number of paediatricians had been posted in almost all the districts of the NWFP, but their services were not being properly utilized.
In many cases children died of even curable and preventable diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery and gastro-enteritis, they added.
The Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) had approached former president Rafiq Tarar in 2000 to seek his help in the construction of a children hospital in the province. The president wrote to the provincial governor, but the then military governor of the province wanted the hospital in his native Kohat district.
“We want the hospital in Peshawar because it is accessible to all the people of the province and gave several proposals to the then governor, but he didn’t listen,” said, a paediatrician.
Lately, the MMA government had agreed to allot 102 kanal of land that had been sanctioned for 500-bed Benazir Hospital along the Grand Trunk Road, but cases regarding 40 per cent of the land were in the court owing to non-payment to owners and it was impossible to start construction there.
Efforts, however, continued and some 15 kanal of land had been allotted for the construction of a hospital in Hayatabad township. “We have identified another 15 kanal plot adjacent to it and a summary had been sent to the chief minister,” he said.
Saudi Arabia and the UK provided a grant of Rs96.9 million in 1983 for the construction of a women and children hospital in Peshawar, the land for which was provided by the NWFP government.
Construction work was carried out in line with the original plan, but there was an inordinate delay due to the inconsistent policies of the successive governments and the hospital was later converted to a general hospital, sources said, adding that the decision dealt a severe blow to the healthcare facilities for women.
Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro, during the 18th International Paediatric Conference held in Islamabad from March 12 to 14, has assured the PPA to help construct children hospital.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had also assured the PPA of construction of the hospital one year back, but there were grim chances.
