After getting Rs200 million, DHQ hospital has no medicine for poor patients

CHITRAL, May 13:  Though the KP government provided over 20 million rupees to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Chitral during the current fiscal year, there is no medicine available for the poor patients.

Local resident Akbar Hussain said his wife was admitted in the hospital with the complaint of a cardiac ailment. He said his wife got severe pain in chest and tried to come out of the female ward to call him.

However, she fell down in front of the female ward and there was nobody to help her. As no male is allowed inside the female ward at night, there was no female attendant in the ward.

He said when the condition of his wife deteriorated, he called a doctor from the emergency block but the doctor was found sleeping and came to see the patient after a long time.

Furthermore, he added, the doctor returned immediately to his room declaring that the patient was stable. Unfortunately, however, the patient died after a few hours but the doctor and other staff never came to her rescue.

Akbar Hussain complained that after the death of his wife, he called the driver of an ambulance to shift the body to his house. The driver also came to the ward after more than two hours.

Tariq Ali Shah of Denin said he rushed a woman patient to the labour room of the hospital for the delivery of her child. He complained that no medicine was being provided to patients and the attendants were forced to bring everything, including syringes, from the market.  He said there was no female doctor on duty at the labour room and only a midwife and a nurse were handling the delivery cases.

The attendants of the patients said the provincial government had released more than 20 million rupees for the provision of free medicines to the poor patients but nobody knows where this amount had gone. They also complained that some of the low level staff of the hospital were working in different shops and drawing salary from the hospital. Besides, there are heaps of garbage in the hospital which have not been picked for the last one month.

When this correspondent contacted Dr. Noorul Islam, Medical Superintendent of DHQ Hospital, he said 16 posts of women medical officers were lying vacant in the hospital and that’s why the only WMO was unable to perform duty in the labour room at night. He confirmed that the provincial government had released more than 20 million rupees for purchasing medicines to be provided to the patients.

“But at present, we face shortage of medicines and there is nothing in the store.” He said the Tehsil Municipal Administration was responsible for the disposal of garbage from the hospital but it had not been sending its vehicle to the hospital for the last one month despite the fact that letters had been sent frequently.