Newly built hospital in Serai Naurang yet to be equipped

LAKKI MARWAT: Despite the lapse of three years, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government failed to provide furniture and other necessary equipment to the newly built Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Serai Naurang subdivision of Lakki Marwat district.
The former chief minister and now the Federal Minister for Housing Akram Khan Durrani in the Muttahidda Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) rule approved the construction of the hospital in Serai Naurang. It was completed in 2011 when the Awami National Party (ANP)-led coalition government was ruling the province.
The hospital which was upgraded to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital status has not yet been provided with furniture and necessary equipment.The furniture of the old Civil and Police Hospital building in Serai Naurang was shifted to this hospital.
Soon after its completion, the locals complained to the Health Department about the use of substandard material in the building of the hospital.Acting on the complaints, the officials of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) came from Peshawar and inspected the building of the hospital, besides seizing the official record.
Talking to The News, the circle officer, Inspector Shahid Adnan said that following the directives of the ACE director Ziaullah Toru, a team of officials along with the technical officer, Attique Khan, inspected the poorly built hospital and found it in deplorable condition.
He said the construction department caused about Rs100 million losses to the national kitty by using substandard material.During a visit to the hospital by this scribe, most of the walls and roofs of the newly built wards and radiology and male emergency rooms were found in dilapidated condition.
The patients were facing problems while passing through the hospital corridor to reach the store to get medicines. There was no proper drainage of water.Some patients complained the storekeepers told them to purchase life-saving drugs from the market.
When contacted, Dr Abdur Rehman, who is the Medical Superintendent DHQ Hospital and has been assigned additional charge of the District Health Officer (DHO) Lakki Marwat, said the medicines were always available in the store and the patients were asked to get them from the market if the prescribed medicines were not available.
He said work on the construction of second phase of the hospital would be started soon. He said this included eight residential quarters for the paramedics and two hostels for the doctors and nursing staff.
He said the provincial government had provided funds for the purchase of equipment and furniture and the tender had been placed for the purpose.He said the former Deputy Commissioner Lakki Marwat, Syed Zafar Ali Shah had given an ambulance to the Serai Naurang Hospital as there were three ambulances in the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital while this hospital had none.