RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has now set June 30 as deadline for completion of renovation work of Holy Family Hospital (HFH), second extension since start of the project.

The 1100-bed hospital has been closed since October 2023 for renovation, overburdening the remaining two government hospitals in the garrison city besides causing a lot of problems to patients and doctors.

The caretaker Punjab government has launched the project to reconstruct the old and new blocks of Holy Family Hospital in October 2023 and set the deadline to complete the project by end of January.

But the Communication and Works Department missed the deadline and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz gave another deadline of June 30.

After the closure of 1100-bed hospital, all the burden of patients was shifted to Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital where patients had to wait for long hours in sizzling heat to get their turn for medical checkup.

However, for surgeries, the patients wait for two to three months for their turn.

On the other hand, doctors and nurses in two government run hospital faced hardship to handle influx of patients.

`It is humanly difficult for a doctor to check more than 100 patients a day.

`As doctor, it is our duty to give full time to listen to the problem and suggest medicine for the patient,` said Dr Hamayun Warriach, President of BBH YDA chapter.

He said that after the closure of the HFH, the patients landed in two government run hospitals and it created problems for patients as well as doctors.He said the government should speed up the work andreopenthehospitalas soon as possible.

He said that the budget of BBH and DHQ Hospital increased manifold but patients had to get medicines from outside the hospital especially for surgeries.

He said that the doctors were working thrice than their capacity.

He said that there was dire need to open new teaching hospital in the garrison city as the existing hospitals were not enough to handle the large population.

However, he said that instead of opening more hospitals, the government had failed to manage the existing ones.

Mohammad Anwar, a patient at BBH, said that he had to wait from 9am to 12noonforhisturn due to patients overcrowding in the hospital Faiz Ahmed, a patient from Gujar Khan, said that there was no facility in Tehsil Headquarter Hospital so he was brought to BBH for pneumonia and doctors gave medicine but refused to admit him for want of bed.

The condition of patients in DHQ Hospital is not different as they had to wait long hours in outpatients department to get their turn.

`I came from Akalgarh to get medicine for my mother, a diabetic, and after waiting long hours, got the medicines,` said Saima Mehboob, an attendant of the patient.

She said that mostly people arrived in the hospital who cannot afford medical treatment in private clinics or hospitals and had to wait long hours in hot weather.

On Tuesday, Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazir visited Holy Family Hospital along with Deputy Commissioner Dr. Hassan Waqar Cheema and inspected the ongoing renovation work.