Committee formed to resolve DHQ hospital issues

CHITRAL: District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Chitral lacks basic facilities for patients and is unable to cope with any emergency situation due to lack of resources.

For years, most of the posts of senior doctors and specialists have remained vacant while the hospital is poorly equipped and most of its equipment have stopped working due to lack of maintenance.

The hospital’s dialysis machine has been out of order for about a year and kidney patients are forced to move to major cities for treatment.

Moreover, the government also failed to provide funds as well as safety kits to the hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Recently, a political party held a protest demonstration demanding the government to get the dialysis machine repaired in order to save the kidney patients and their relatives from running from pillar to post in cities for treatment.

However, no steps were taken by the government to resolve any of the issues at the hospital.

The representatives of political parties now have decided to jointly work and get the issues resolved in coordination with the management of the hospital.

In this regard, they agreed to constitute a 10-member committee representing different political parties and the civil society. The committee was notified by the medical superintendent (MS) of the DHQ hospital Dr Shamim on Friday.

At its first meeting on Friday, the MS briefed the committee members on different issues including lack of budget and non-functional equipment.

The committee also contacted MPA Hidayatur Rehman and took the issue of the dialysis machine. The MPA announced Rs600,000 for the repair of the dialysis machine.–Syed Nazir Hussain