CHAKWAL: Already facing action by the Supreme Court and an investigation by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab (IDAP) has invited more controversy after seemingly abandoning its project to renovate public-sector hospitals.

One such hospital is the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Chakwal, which the IDAP began revamping in last June.

According to the authority’s own policy, every department and block should have been renovated within 150 days of taking it over from the hospital’s management. However, the IDAP has not been able to finish revamping the hospital within the stipulated timeframe.

According to a July 12 letter from the hospital’s medical superintendent to the CEO of the District Health Authority – a copy of which is available with Dawn – the intensive care unit, coronary care unit, outpatient department dispensary, male ward, female ward, children’s ward, eye outpatient department, blood bank, mortuary and operation theatre area have been renovated, but work on the inventory block, emergency ground floor, physiotherapy, labour room and eye ward took additional time.

The District Health Authority CEO informed the deputy commissioner of the situation in a letter on July 13, after which Deputy Commissioner Ghulam Saghir Shahid wrote to the IDAP CEO on July 19 asking for work on the project to be expedited so it could be completed as soon as possible.

“During 13th meeting of Health Council, it has been observed seriously that existing pace of work is very slow. About 1,800 to 2,000 patients visit OPD on daily basis. Since revamping process has been inordinately delayed, therefore patients visiting OPD are suffering badly,” Mr Shahid wrote.

The IDAP CEO did not respond to his letter even after a period of 19 days.

“Patients are suffering due to delays in completion,” Mr Shahid told Dawn.

The hospital consists of 205 beds, but while renovation work is ongoing it is only able to offer 90 in the emergency block and the male and female wards are closed.

Medical superintendent Dr Mohammad Aslam Asad said 3,000 patients visit the hospital every day, and patients are “bearing the brunt” of the delays in renovation work.

Since the renovation of the children’s ward is not yet complete, the hospital’s management has moved children to the 10-bed eye ward, where three children between the ages of five and eight were seen lying on one bed.

According to documents obtained by Dawn, there are 201 sanctioned doctors posts of which 99 are filled; there are 68 sanctioned posts for gazetted officers of which 27 are filled, 56 for paramedical staff of which 13 are vacant and 104 nursing staff posts of which 12 are vacant. Of the 173 sanctioned seats for allied staff, just 84 are filled.

“The revamping was carried out just to fritter away public funds, as you can build a new hospital with Rs385 million. All the contractors, even the labourers, belong to Lahore. We fail to understand what is being done,” a senior doctor from the hospital said.

Mohammad Sajid, a contractor from Lahore who has been tasked with whitewashing the revamped buildings, said he had six workers with him who had all left because he was unable to pay them. “My Rs200,000 are pending in arrears,” he added.

When contacted, IDAP Assistant Manager Rizwan Wahid blamed the hospital management for the delay claiming they did not hand over various blocks to the IDAP on time. He denied that there was a funding shortage or a capacity issue.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2018