PESHAWAR: Paediatricians are pinning hopes on the early formation of Board of Governors for Khyber Institute of Child Health (KICH) and Children Hospital to make the long-awaited project operational by February next year.

They said that Khyber Institute of Child Health and Children Hospital was approved by federal government in 2008 and was supposed to become operational in five years but shortage of funds delay the project.

They KICH, the academic wing of the project, started partial operations but the much-needed 300-bed Children Hospital was yet to see light of the day. During the last few years, the hospital has started receiving funds from federal government and provincial government is planning to start only OPD and emergency services at the facility next month.

However, paediatricians said that the hospital could become fully operational as all arrangements were completed and it required only a dedicated BoG to expedite the process. The government has so far released Rs5 billion to it and the remaining amount of its total cost of Rs7.9 billion is in pipeline. The officials associated with the project are sure that it can be started fully by February, subject to announcement of BoG by the government.

Officials say Rs3bn still needed for completion of project

The project designed by Prof Abdul Hameed, a former head of child health department at Khyber Medical College, is the first-ever facility of its kind to provide all services required for patients and work as umbrella for the province’s child health services.

It is currently under the domain of the BoG of Hayatabad Medical Complex that is preoccupied with its own matters and does not have time to pursue work on Children Hospital.

The government has already hinted at formation of a separate BoG for KICH and newly constructed Fountain House to accelerate full-scale operations of both. Except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, all provinces have dedicated children hospitals where patients receive all sorts of services under one roof while children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are being shifted to other provinces for manageable illnesses.

“We are in the process of getting electricity connection. Sewage and gas lines have already been completed but a BoG is needed to take quick decisions and save the project from more delay,” paediatricians told this scribe.

Prof Inayatur Rehman, the director of the project, when approached, said that they would recruit 1,800 people, most technical persons, and would offer 20 child health specialities including medicines and surgical. He said that none of the patients would be sent outside the province once the hospital became operational.

“It will be a source of developing child health services throughout the province with most modern referral system from other hospitals,” he said.

Prof Inayat, a paediatric surgeon, said that the institute was first of its kind as a hub for both clinical, preventive, research and training facilities for the whole province in the field of child health.

He said that it would be a super-sub specialties hospital in clinical paediatrics, which would not only provide healthcare services to patients but would also impart training to doctors, nurses and paramedics on latest approaches.

Officials in health department said that the government wanted to launch emergency and OPD services at the hospital next month and depute specialists from other hospitals there.

They said that initial budget for the project was Rs2 billion in 2013, which went up to approximately Rs8 billion in 2021. They added that more than Rs3 billion was still needed for its completion.

Officials said that an amount of Rs1.5 billion was expected to be released during the current fiscal year for the project on which 80 per cent of the construction work had been completed.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2024