Fountain House made constituent institute of Hayatabad Medical Complex

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has declared Fountain House a constituent institute of Hayatabad Medical Complex, while psychiatrists have continued to press for the facility to be given the status of a separate medical teaching institution so it can begin full-scale operations.

The decision was approved by the provincial cabinet at its meeting on Friday on a proposal moved by the health department to affiliate Fountain House with Hayatabad Medical Complex.

Members of the Pakistan Psychiatric Society have objected to the arrangement, saying Hayatabad Medical Complex is already a large institution and its Board of Governors is occupied with its own affairs, which in their view would leave limited room to properly oversee Fountain House.

A senior representative of the Pakistan Psychiatric Society said the body wanted either a separate Board of Governors for Fountain House or its affiliation with Khyber Institute of Child Health because, he said, both were specialised institutions.

According to the representative, the health department had in January 2025 laid out a work plan to make Fountain House operational by turning it into a medical teaching institution and forming a separate Board of Governors to speed up the process. He said that despite the passage of more than 15 months, the facility had still not started operations at the desired level.

Sources said a concept paper would first be prepared, after which Fountain House would initially be affiliated with Hayatabad Medical Complex and could later be granted independent medical teaching institution status.

Operational status and staffing

Last year, Sarhad Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases was shifted from Central Jail Peshawar to the Fountain House premises in Hayatabad Township. The health department posted 145 staff members of the psychiatric hospital at Fountain House under an arrangement that they would continue working there until the facility was declared a medical teaching institution, after which it would recruit its own staff.

However, there has so far been no progress in line with the PC-I, under which Fountain House is to become a medical teaching institution and serve as a flagship centre for mental health subspecialties, including child and adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, neuropsychiatry and addiction medicine, along with community mental health services.

At present, the facility has only two psychiatrists.

Psychiatrists said the province’s first Fountain House had been expected to begin independent recruitment on a fast-track basis, especially as several years had already passed in completing its construction. They said the facility was now ready, but required a separate Board of Governors to move ahead. "Now, everything is ready but we need separate BoGs to move things forward. If given MTI status at the earliest, FH would be made a centre of excellence, not only for patient care, but also for training and producing human resources in psychiatry and its super specialties psychology and allied mental health fields/"

They also said the government’s model of affiliating the facility with Hayatabad Medical Complex was not workable because Fountain House was a separate specialty institution that required highly trained personnel in psychiatry. They added that under the original plan, the state-of-the-art mental health teaching hospital had yet to become formally operational.

Psychiatrists seek separate status

Psychiatrists said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the only province without a mental health teaching institution. They said the province had more than 60 psychiatrists who could help develop the proposed 250-bed Fountain House into a regional leader in mental healthcare and create opportunities for collaboration with international mental health research and training organisations.

They said that because the province had faced terrorism, unemployment, inflation, natural disasters and post-trauma situations, strengthening mental health services had become a public health priority.

Health Secretary Shahidullah Khan said Fountain House would remain part of Hayatabad Medical Complex for now.

He added that granting it separate medical teaching institution status could be considered later.