RAWALPINDI: Though declared a `model` hospital for the Rawalpindi division by the Punjab government, the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) lacks latest machinery and equipment and patients have to go to private laboratories for conducting pathological tests.

The hospital does not have an MRI machine, digital X-Ray machines, a lithotripsy machine which is used to break kidney stones, CRP C-reactive protein used to test inflammation markers in the body and other equipment used for pathological testing.

Patients have to have their tests done at private clinics and pay heavy fees for them.

`Most of the patients in government hospitals are poor and have to borrow money to get pathological tests done atprivate laboratories,` said Mohammad Yousaf, a patient in the orthopaedic ward.

He said he had brought his mother-inlaw to the hospital two days ago complaining of knee problems, but due to the unavailability of beds, they were told to come back in a month or two.

`They gave her painkillers and refused to admit her. I have to take her to a private clinic because she is in pain,` he said. Arshad Mehmood said his brother had sustained a head injury and that he had spent Rs10,000 to get an MRI done from elsewhere.

`I requested that we be referred to another government hospital but no public hospital in the city has an MRI machine,` he said.

A kidney patient, Mehmood Khan said he was coming to the hospital for the month but the lithotripsy machine was out of order. `The doctors advisedme to taxe out my kidney stone as soon as possible, but the machine they have caters to 200 patients and that the BBH kidney department was booked,` he said. And yet, the Punjab government has declared BBH a model hospital in the Rawalpindi division, whichgives an indication of the condition of other hospitals in the division.

Last week, the outdoor patient department at the hospital was renovated for Rs30 million and the old and rusty machines were installed in the refurbished building once again.

`The old machines are not accurate, which is why patients have to get pathological tests done elsewhere,` a senior doctor at the hospital told Dawn.

Young Doctors Association Punjab Chairman Dr Haider Akhtar told Dawn that the doctors had pointed out the lack of important machines to the government many times.

`Our ICU`s do not have ventilators and there is no ICU for children. The government had said it will install 25 ventilators, which have not been installed yet,` he said. Dr Akhtar said the ultrasound machine was old and did not give accurate results.

BBH Medical Superintendent Dr Asif Qadir Mir said the provincial government had allocated Rs1.2 billion for the up-gradation of the hospital as it wanted to make it a `model` hospital for the Rawalpindi Division.

`The government provided 25 ventilators and five ultra sound machines and the outdoor patient department was also renovated and equipped with the latest machinery. Such facilities are not available in expensive private hospitals,` he said.

Dr Mir said that the provincial government had spent more than Rs75 million for the provision of new machinery and for improving existing facilities in the hospital.