Patients facing difficulty in reaching BBH

Rawalpindi
Benazir Bhutto Hospital in town received significantly low influx of patients particularly at its outpatient department here on Friday mainly because of roads’ closure and heavy traffic jams on almost all roads leading to the hospital due to on-going construction work on Metro Bus Service Project.
Patients have been suffering for months in reaching any of the three teaching hospitals in town including BBH, District Headquarters Hospital and Holy Family Hospital as Benazir Bhutto Road along with roads linking it with a number of thickly populated areas have been having various kinds of hurdles for traffic.
Benazir Bhutto Road from 6th Road to Faizabad was closed on Friday in result of which almost all roads leading to the BBH faced worst traffic jams and it certainly caused difficulty for patients reaching hospital, said Mohammad Atif, aged 32, a patient who visited BBH on Friday.
He, like many other patients at the BBH OPD, said the concerned government authorities have not been giving attention to the problems of patients in need of reaching hospitals. Whuile planning blockage of a part of a road due to construction work on Benazir Bhutto Road or on Metro Bus Service Project, the authorities should arrange for alternate routes for the patients at least, he added. It has been observed that hundreds of patients in emergency even had to face delay in reaching allied hospitals in the last few months that caused them irreversible losses and it was not merely because of the construction work being carried out on Benazir Bhutto Road but because of ill-management of the concerned authorities, said a senior health official pleading anonymity. He added that losses in a number of cases can be avoided if the concerned authorities provide alternative routes for patients to travel to the hospitals. The number of patients reaching BBH OPD was much low on Friday and many patients had to face difficulties in reaching hospital in time, said Medical Superintendent at BBH Dr. Asif Qadir Mir while talking to ‘The News’ on Friday.
He added that Rawal Road and link roads leading to the BBH in the areas of Chah Sultan and Amarpura have already been having heavy traffic jams while traffic from Mareer Chowk to Chandni Chowk was also jammed and it was hardly possible for patients to reach hospital in time.