LANDIKOTAL: The residents here on Wednesday asked the senior health authorities to ensure the provision of facilities at the District Headquarters Hospital here.
They made the demands during the visit of Director General Health Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Dr Shaheen to the DHQ hospital. The senior health official was accompanied by Member Provincial Assembly Sahibzada Muhammad Adnan Qadri.
The DG Health visited the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Landikotal and inspected various sections of the hospital, including the OPD, emergency unit, labour room, government wards and other facilities.
During the visit, DG Health Dr Shaheen was accompanied by MPA Sahibzada Muhammad Adnan Qadri, Chief Minister KP’s Focal Person Shamsheer Afridi, Health Department officials including Dr Shahzad and Medical Superintendent of the hospital Dr Ehtesham.
On the occasion, residents and patients highlighted a number of serious issues faced by the hospital, including up to 20 hours of electricity loadshedding, shortage of water, refusal to admit patients in government children wards during evening hours, lack of facilities in the emergency unit, staff absenteeism and the routine referral of patients to Peshawar due to non-functional medical facilities.
The public lodged strong complaints over the lack of treatment facilities, piling pressure on health authorities. DG Health Dr Shaheen expressed strong displeasure over the situation and took notice of the issues raised by the public.
Talking to the media, Dr Shaheen said that the hospital’s fundamental problem was electricity and immediate steps would be taken to repair and restore the solar power system. He added that alternative arrangements would be made to install heating systems in children wards during the winter season due to prolonged power outages.
He said that talks would be held with senior officials of Tesco to resolve the electricity issue, while a technical team would be dispatched to make the hospital’s solar system fully functional so that uninterrupted power supply could be ensured.
DG Health Dr Shaheen announced that funds would be provided for the supply of government medicines at DHQ Hospital Landikotal. He said a comprehensive report regarding electricity, water supply, patient admissions in government wards, activation of medical machinery and other issues would be sent to higher health authorities and practical steps would be taken to improve healthcare services for patients.
