Patients complain about lack of facilities at Saidu Teaching Hospital

MINGORA: The people here on Saturday complained that the Sehat Insaf Cards did not cover the treatment of the patients suffering from the coronavirus infection.

Talking to this scribe, the patients and their attendants at the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital said that they were forced to buy medicines and injections from the market.

They maintained that though this was the only big hospital in Malakand division, it was not providing free treatment facilities to the people despite the announcement of the provincial government.

The patients said that claims about providing free treatment to the people remained unsubstantiated.

The gloves and other items used by the doctors and paramedics at the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital were also not available, the patients alleged.

They said that the people were compelled to buy medicines and injections from the market. The poor patients said there was no free treatment. “On the one hand, the government is claiming that free treatment is available to the people, but on the other patients do not have the facilities at a hospital situated in the native district of the chief minister,” a patient complained. The patient said that people from all over Malakand division came to this teaching hospital for treatment.

One Mohammad Sadiq from Kohistan area in Upper Dir had brought his grandchild to the Saidu Sharif Hospital for treatment. He said that he had been buying medicines from the market.

Another attendant, Ghulam Nabi said that his father had been under treatment for the last 10 days and he had been buying medicine from the private medical stores.

The patients demanded the government to issue funds to the hospital in order to ensure the provision of medicines to the needy people.