The government allocated Rs 1.25 billion to Federal Polyclinic Hospital in the budget for 2012-13, yet the hospital failed to develop a mechanism to control issuance of expired medicines to patients at its dispensary, Business Recorder has learnt from reliable source.
Source said that expired medicine (Augmentin Syrup) was issued to a patient by the hospital's dispenser despite the fact that the dispenser is bound to check the expiry date of the medicine before giving it to a patient, adding that the hospital administration has set-up an inquiry team comprising senior doctors to probe the incident.
When contacted a senior official of Polyclinic Hospital who wished not to be named told Business Recorder that the team accused the medical dispenser and found the drug store keeper innocent in the initial findings of the inquiry team. The official said that the team would submit its findings to the hospital administration for further action, if necessary.
Doctor Iftikhar Naru, a senior medical practitioner in Polyclinic told this scribe that the hospital requested Rs 2.10 billion budget for fiscal year 2012-13, however, the government only allocated Rs 1.25 billion for the current fiscal year. About the extension of hospital, he said, "Due to lack of medical facilities in rural areas, patients from AJK, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and from different districts of Rawalpindi Division come to Islamabad for treatment, due to which hospitals of Islamabad face a challenge. The only solution is to increase the number of beds, wards and other facilities through extension of the hospitals".
Long queues of patients to get MRI test at Polyclinic hospital were seen by this scribe. The hospital lacks CT scan facility which raises the cost to the poor as they are then compelled to go to the private sector to get the test or they can go to other federal government hospitals ie Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) where the facility is available, but the wait there is from two to three weeks.
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