PESHAWAR: Category-D Hospital Mamad Gat in Mohmand trial district is facing financial crisis and the partner organisation has warned of closure of operations in case the outstanding amount is not paid by the government, accordingtosources.

The hospital was outsourced to a private organisation in 2020. It is being run under Public Private Partnership Act.

The government extended three-year contract of the partner organisation after its expiry in June 2023.

The extension was given because of the non-existence of Board of Governors of Khyber Health Foundation (HF), a public sector entity established for outsourcing hospitals to non-governmental organisations.

The contract kept extending and the latest agreement expired last year.Medical Emergency Resilience Foundation (MERF), which is running Momad Gat and six other hospitals in the province, has been asking the government to clear the unpaid dues so that it could resume operations.

`The government should pay us a total of Rs1 billion for all the hospitals, including Rs104 million for 46-bed Momad Gat Category-D Hospital so we could resume work,` Dr Adnan Taj, the managing director of Health Foundation, said. He said that they had hired specialists and other staff but all quit owing to lack of salaries, which led to closure of work in the health facility.

`From Monday, we are going to start emergency and labour room services just on humanitarian grounds,` he said.

Sources said that the government had selected new organisations to hand over the health facilities to them but it was delayed through a decision of BoG, recently announced by health department.

The managing director of Health Foundation in a letter to health department that he had received from the deputy commissioner of Mohmand onJanuary13,soughtclearance ofdues.In the letter, he said that MERF clearly stated that without clearance of its outstanding liabilities it would not be able to continue services beyond January 1, 2025.

Explaining the situation, he said that upon the expiry of contract of MERF, a different organisation was selected for contract awarding of Mamad Gat hospital, but due to non-existence of BoG of Health Foundation the contract was yet to be awarded to the new implementing partner. He said that the BoG was the approving authority for outsourcing hospitals.

The said hospital is the only Category-D health facility in Safi tehsil of Mohmand district. The hospital is being run by MERF and it is providing quality health services to people since 2020. In case of exit of MERF, the hospital will be closed as no recruitment has been made on sanctioned posts by government, ultimately the local community will suffer.

`Furthermore, with the existing HR strength at district level, we are not in a position to run the said hospitalif thecurrent implementing partner exits, said the letter. It said that finance department should be approached by for clearance of the outstanding liabilities.

The letter said that the current implementing partner, MERF, should be directed to continue health delivery services till awarding of the contract to the new organisation or to depute staff for Mamad Gat hospital as per the approved schedule of new expenditures to ensure provision of uninterrupted health services to people ofthe area.

The government has been awarding contract to private organisations to run public hospitals in line with Public Private Partnership Act to improve patients` care.

The selection of hospitals for outsourcing is recommended by a committee as the hospitals don`t function properly because the staffers don`t want to get posted in far flung areas. Under the law, the partners recruit the staff, including specialists and female medics, and the government pays them the sanctioned budget for the respective facilities.