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Chitral hospital needs specialist doctors  

CHITRAL, 05 Jan 09: As many as 106128 outdoor patients were treated in the DHQ hospital Chitral during the year 2008 while 10626 were admitted as indoor patients. According to the data gathered from the offices of medical superintendent of the hospital here on Monday, 6616 major and minor operations were carried out during the year while diagnostic facilities were provided to 39264 which was 3000 greater than the year of 2007. Emergency coverage was extended to 6019 persons against that of 4310 during the year 2007 while blood transfusion of 731 persons was carried out.

The report further says that x-ray facility was provided to 17547 while it was 15900 in the year 2997 and ECG of 2146 patients was carried out. During the year, 1303 deliveries took place in the labour room of the hospital. Talking to Dawn, medical superintendent Dr. Nazir Ahmed said that during the year, the casualty ward was added to the hospital for the first time having segregated wards for each sex which reduced the rush on the indoor patients wards. He said that waiting room for the females is in the final stage which was urgently needed. He said that the budget for medicine is 1.4 million rupees for hospital which are utilized to provide free medicines to the needy patients.

Regarding the shortage of doctors in the hospital, he said that as many as 16 posts of medical officers and senior medical officers are lying vacant in the hospital which is adversely affecting its efficiency. He said that the posts of district specialists in different departments of the hospital are still to be filled. He said that due to the peculiar geographic situation of the district, the specialists post must be filled on priority basis because after the closure of Lowari Pass in the winter season, the people are stranded here and they lose their contact with the rest of the country when the serious patients are referred to the other hospitals.

Dr Nazir said that the district specialists of cardiology, pathology, radiography, ENT, skin, neurosurgery and psychiatry are vacant since the very beginning. He said that if the posts of specialists are filled, then the residents of Chitral will need not to go the other hospitals of the province. He said that the hospital has been upgraded to category B some years ago and the physical infrastructure is on the verge of completion and the required equipments have also been obtained and the hospital faces only the shortage of doctors and specialists --(Zahiruddin)

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