PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunl(hwa Health Department has established its own directorate of works with a view to carry out timely repair and maintenance work at the hospitals.

The government has allocated Rs2.6 billion for two years for the directorate of works that will operate under an executive engineer with sub-divisional officers and other staff at his disposal, KP secretary health Mushtaq Jadoon told Dawn.

He said that the directorate would ensure speedy completion of the repair and maintenance worksat the hospitals and the patients would get unhindered services.

`For the initial two years, it will cover 11 big hospitals like the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, etc, while its scope of work will be extended to the whole province later,` he said.

The directorate of worl(s would be located at the offices of KP directorate general health and remain in touch with the designated hospitals to take care of the maintenance work there.

The focus will be repair and maintenance of the toilets and pipelines, he said.

The health secretary said that the directorate would ensure that maintenance work was carried out quickly.

Earlier, the health department had to receive complaints regarding repairs in the hospitals and then itwould send umbrella PC-1 for the same to the communication and works department that took painfully long time.

He said that the directorate would also supervise the projects currently being carried out by the C&W department to ensure their timely completion and quality work.

He said that it would also oversee the development work being carried out in the teaching hospitals. For example, the health department has allocated Rs3 billion for development work in the Lady Reading Hospital, which would now be looked after by the directorate.

Mr Jadoon said that the government had already approved a summary in this regard and a senior engineer had been deputed from the C&W department to head the directorate.

`We have also requested the KP chief secretary to give a go-aheadfor the recruitment of other staff so that the directorate starts operations as soon as possible,` he said.

The health secretary said that head of the directorate would exercise the powers of chief engineer and carry out all small and big projects to ensure that the health institutions did not suffer.

Sources in the directorate of health said that the previous system was not only lengthy and cumbersome, but would also cost more money.

`We have to pay Rs100, 000 or more for whitewash of two rooms.

Similarly, we have to wait for months for small constructions and repair work,` they said.

They said that majority of the teaching and district headquarters hospitals had got own maintenance staff, but their performance wasn`t up to the mark. They said that the directorate would also check the performance of the staff already working in the hospitals.