Afridi sets fiscal year deadline for revamp of KP district headquarters hospitals

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to complete the revamping of district headquarters hospitals by the end of the current fiscal year, saying further delays would not be accepted.

The instruction came during a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House to review progress on the revamping of district headquarters hospitals across the province. According to a statement issued by the chief minister’s secretariat, the meeting received a detailed briefing on the project and examined progress made so far, implementation hurdles and the next steps.

Mr Afridi told relevant departments to speed up work and ensure timely completion of the project. He also directed officials to give priority to hospitals where comparatively less development work was required so they could be completed and made operational sooner, allowing the public earlier access to improved healthcare services.

The chief minister asked authorities to identify and remove all obstacles affecting implementation without delay, while reiterating that avoidable hold-ups would not be tolerated. He said the project would be reviewed again after three months and stressed that meaningful progress should be visible before the next assessment.

Project scope and health sector priorities

During the meeting, Mr Afridi said that along with the rehabilitation and upgradation of district headquarters hospitals, rural health centres and basic health units, the proposed health city was also essential and remained one of the provincial government’s top priorities. He instructed officials to further accelerate work on the health city initiative so it could enter the implementation stage as early as possible.

He said the provincial government was committing significant resources not only to the rehabilitation and modernisation of existing hospitals and health facilities but also to new strategic initiatives, including the health city project, aimed at meeting the province’s growing healthcare requirements and ensuring modern, quality and sustainable health services.

The chief minister also directed authorities to take all required steps for the early completion of the Khyber Institute of Child Health and other ongoing projects in the health sector, while assuring them of the provincial government’s support in meeting those targets.

Approved schemes and procurement update

Officials informed the meeting that four separate PC-I schemes had been approved for the revamping of 32 secondary care hospitals at district headquarters level across the province. The combined approved cost of those schemes stands at Rs33.085 billion.

The meeting was also told that procurement of modern medical equipment worth Rs2.55bn had been completed and that the equipment had already been delivered to the hospitals concerned. Officials further said that infrastructure designs for the hospitals had been approved, while civil works were expected to begin shortly.