Prof. Inayat stated that the technical and financial evaluation process for the purchase of hospital equipment was almost finished.
Officials claim that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) health department has requested funding from the federal government in order to purchase the necessary equipment for the opening of the province’s first children hospital by the end of the current year.
The federal government started building the Khyber Institute of Child Health (KICH) and Children Hospital ten years ago. Due to the federal government’s inadequate funding for the project, the clinical portion of Children Hospital is still not up and running, but KICH’s academic portion is already complete.
Apart from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), officials claimed that the other three provinces had full-fledged children’s hospitals and institutes where training for doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other staff was improving the region’s child health conditions.
They claimed that KP tried in vain to secure the necessary funding and finish the children hospital. As a result, they added, 17 million children would suffer because there was no institution specifically for them and they were moved to other provinces for treatment of difficult illnesses.
According to Prof. Inayatur Rehman, the director of KICH, the government has so far given the hospital a total of Rs. 2.5 billion.
“Around Rs5.3 billion of the remaining funds are approved as per the revised PC-I. We have asked the federal government to release at least Rs. 500 million ahead of the upcoming budget and to set aside the remaining funds for the hospital in that budget, the official said.
He believed that by the end of the current year, the 290-bed hospital would be operational thanks to the prompt release of the necessary funds.
“We are in constant communication with the appropriate federal authorities regarding the financial challenges we are encountering in finishing the project. They promised us complete cooperation, according to Prof. Inayat, a paediatric surgeon. In terms of the project’s progress, he claimed that 70% of the construction work had been finished.
He continued by saying that they were looking to the government for financial support to finish the project. “We have requested that these be done on a priority basis,” he said. “We have applied for electricity connections to WAPDA and gas authorities as well as for laying external sewerage line to Peshawar Development Authority.”
Prof. Inayat stated that the technical and financial evaluation process for the purchase of children hospital equipment was almost finished. He added that they needed money in order to place purchase orders. He added that they needed to raise all the funds prior to the revised PC-time I’s period ending in June 2023.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s KICH and Children Hospital would serve as a hub for paediatric care. Activities at the institute, such as training, instruction, and research in the area of child health, have already begun. 350 students, he claimed, were currently pursuing training in a variety of fields to help the province’s child health.
“Once the hospital is finished, we’ll hire at least 10 specialists, including general, cardiac, and orthopaedic surgeons,” the speaker continued.
Prof. Inayat predicted that the hospital would soon receive some of the cutting-edge machinery needed for modern operating rooms. He stated that in addition to creating a database on paediatric morbidity and mortality, a data bank was being established to aid in the development of policies and research regarding children’s health.
The KICH also includes screening programmes for the prevention of galactosemia, congenital hypothyroidism, and common metabolic disorders. Health professionals will receive training in child health from us, and we will then place them in the province’s hospitals, said Prof. Inayat.