Rawalpindi - The three teaching hospitals of the city — Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital and Holy Family Hospital (HFH) — are facing severe shortage of beds for patients, while the authorities concerned are doing nothing to end this shortage.
In many wards, a single bed is being shared even by three patients. The expected women are suffering badly due to bed shortage in the three hospitals.
What is more pathetic is that the patients who developed bone fractures in road accidents are kept on steel-made stretchers instead of providing them beds.
A large numbers of patients, interviewed by The Nation on Monday, lashed out at the Punjab and district governments, secretary health Punjab, Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) principal and chief executive AHs and chiefs of the hospitals for their negligence. They said that they were being treated as animals in the hospitals. They said that the government is spending billions of rupees on baseless projects instead of meeting the beds and medicine shortage in the AHs. They also alleged that the patients were not being provided with proper medical treatment in the AHs. “I do not know what to do? Should I lay on track of metro bus service project on Murree Road and swallow sand and cement in place of medicines,” shouted Abdul Majid, an asthma patient from Satellite Town Rawalpindi, who was refused to be admitted in HFH. He asked the CM Punjab to pay surprise visit to AHs to see the pathetic situation.
Standing in HFH Zarina Bibi, a thyroid patient from Murree, told The Nation that she was being humiliated for the last one month by the doctors of ENT department. She said that she came hospital one month ago, got examined by doctors in OPD and was asked to go through medical tests from Noori Hospital. She added that she spent Rs 5000 on medical tests but now doctors were not admitting her for operation and using lame excuses daily. “I come from Murree by spending much money as fair. I request Chief Minister Punjab to pay heed towards the maladies of poor patients.”
A young boy Aitsham Ali, son of Mazhar Hussain, who sustained multiple bone fractures in a road accident in Gujar Khan, was kept on steel-made stretcher at BBH emergency department by the doctors. Babar, the attendant of patient, said that doctors were not giving bed to the patient. He said that a doctor asked them to take the patient to some private clinic for treatment as there was no space there. The patients and their attendants agitated against the pathetic attitude of doctors and negligence of government.
Principal RMC and CEO AHs Prof Dr Muhammad Umer and MS HFH Dr Arshad Ali Sabir, MS DHQ Dr Nasir Ali Khan and MS HFH Dr Asif Qadir Mir, when contacted by The Nation, remained tight-lipped over the sorrow state of affairs in the hospitals. They only said, “We would try to provide beds to patients of road accident.”
The secretary health did not attend his cell phone despite several attempts made by this scribe to know his version on the situation.