KOHAT, May 24: There are apprehensions about violent protests in the wake of unusual delay in the provision of proper treatment facilities and shortage of staff in the KDA medical complex, patients and doctors said.

Four years have passed since the establishment of the hospital and the inordinate delay is creating misunderstandings between the hospital administration and local people, who have threatened 'direct action' if the problem is not solved on an urgent basis.

A few days ago a mob, led by MPA Qalbe Hassan, had forcibly opened the surgical ward of the old Liaquat Memorial Hospital besides breaking the hospital's emergency gate.

The district health department had closed down the surgical ward and transferred the surgeon to the KDA medical complex to overcome the shortage of staff there.

People from the southern districts and four tribal agencies and four frontier regions are still compelled to travel to Peshawar and Rawalpindi for specialized clinical and pathological diagnostic tests and treatment, including CT scan, dialysis, heart and major surgeries.

The KDA medical complex's medical ward and burns center remain closed since its opening because of inadequate treatment facilities and the absence of specialists.

The gravity of the problem can be gauged from the fact that many patients from remote tribal areas, 70 per cent of which are without motorable roads, either die on their way to Peshawar or develop major complications because of the delay in treatment.

People said that hundreds of women suffered still births because of the lack of proper treatment facilities in the tribal areas. Travelling to Peshawar for treatment had its own perils, they said, adding that the local people spent large amounts of money on their treatment and medicines besides incurring huge travelling and boarding expenses.

Mocking the government's claims regarding assigning high priority to the health sector, both the patients and doctors said that the KDA medical complex, which was designed to provide modern treatment facilities under one roof besides reducing the rush on Peshawar hospitals, was still understaffed.

Interestingly, the hospital's category had been changed thrice since it was inaugurated. On the day it was opened by the NWFP governor, it was assigned 'A' category. The MMA government, soon after coming into power, downgraded it to 'C' category and announced that all machinery sanctioned for the medical complex be supplied to hospitals in Peshawar.

Following protests by the local legislators and public representatives, the governor intervened and the government again elevated its status to 'B' category and then upgrading it to category 'A'. But despite the elevation in its status the hospital remained without facilities.

Ironically, the provincial government argues that there is no need to run two hospitals in this region. But the people and doctors questioned the approach, saying if there was no need why had the multi-million-rupee medical complex been constructed in the first place.

Legislators, on the other hand, had been demanding that the Liaquat Medical Hospital should not be closed down keeping in view its nearness to the cantonment and the city itself. They had persistently been calling upon the government to make arrangements to run both hospitals.

The LMH, constructed more than 40 years ago, also did not fare better than the ill-equipped medical complex as it also lacked basic facilities. Even its laboratory had been shifted to the new KDA complex.

The medical superintendent, Dr Mohammad Younis, who is the in-charge of both the KDA medical complex and the LMH, told this correspondent that the LMH's surgical ward had been closed down because there were only two surgeons working for the two hospitals.

The, he said, attended OPDs, surgical ward and the emergency besides remaining on call for 24 hours a day, adding that it was simply not humanly possible.