By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: A hefty amount of Rs. 170 million is surrendered to the finance department of the province from the district headquarters hospital (DHQH) Chitral on account of the salaries of 25 posts of district specialists and 50 posts of medical officers which are going vacant since its up-gradation to category B ten years ago.
Sources in the health department told Chitral Times that amount of salary cannot be retained by the institution as it has yet to gain financial autonomy for which it needs to be upgraded to category A and the irony was that the proposal submitted to the government last year was turned down on the ground of low population of the district.
A source in the health department requesting not to be named told Chitral Times that the criterion for A category hospital has been fixed at 8 lakh population while that of Chitral stood at 4.5 lakh and was much lower than the upper meniscus.
He said that the plan prepared by the communication and works department for the up-gradation suggested an amount of Rs. 1.12 billion by which a modern building was to be erected dismantling the present ramshackle building of 1970s planned in haphazard pattern.
He insisted that despite low population of the district it catered to, the hospital still qualified for A category on the basis of its rate of patient flow which was more than 150,000 in terms of OPD patients and 20,000 were indoor patients during the last year and this is the highest of all DHQHs in the province.
He said that area was yet another factor which can be given due weightage for its up-gradation as Chitral was, area-wise, one-fifth of the whole province embracing an area of about 15000 square kilometer while the length of the valley was 470 kms starting from Arandu to Baroghil in the north.
Although, the hospital had been upgraded to category B more than ten years ago but the facilities it offered pertained to category C which multiplied the issues of secondary healthcare for the people making them dependent on tertiary healthcare system in Peshawar to which they are referred from here.
The pathetic situation of the hospital can be gauged from the fact that out of 30 posts of district specialists, only 5 are filled while 50 posts of medical officers, both male and female, are vacant and the budget of the salaries of the vacant posts of the doctors are returned to the provincial government.
Figures received from the hospital showed that it receives heart patients to the tune of 5000 per year but two posts of district specialist of cardiology are vacant since its very inception and the mortality rate of heart patients is highest and similarly, the hospital is without eye specialist for the last three years continuously.
A source in the finance department said that the pool of amount returned from the various districts on account of vacant posts are placed at the disposal of the chief executive of the province who usually allocated it to their respective home districts.
A senior doctor in the DHQH Chitral said that as per rule, the facilities of CT Scan and MRI can be available only in category A hospitals and as such the people of Chitral will have to wait for many years to have the facilities till the up-gradation of their hospital.
He said that presently more than 50 patients are referred to Peshawar from here in a week and it causes a huge financial burden over the people for travelling of a patient to Peshawar accompanied by one or more attendants only for CT Scan or MRI.
He was of the view that if the hospital is given financial autonomy on the pattern of teaching hospitals after its up-gradation to category A, then almost all the issues related with healthcare facilities will be solved and the filling of all the vacant posts of specialists and medical officers will be possible only when the budget-making is done at hospital level.
