LAHORE: The Allied Hospital Faisalabad tops the list of four major government health facilities of Punjab which are receiving `unmanageable turnout of patients` annually.

The teaching hospital has reported nearly one million patients at its OPD and more than 150,000 indoor admissions. The numbers are said to be beyond its capacity and resources.

It is also treating patients more than those visiting any mega teaching hospital of Lahore as theauthorities have reported its bed occupancy rate alarmingly high 145 per cent.

The Allied Hospital is among the four state-run hospitals of the province which have been shortlisted as a pilot project under a mega revamp scheme launched by the Punjab government to upgrade them with the latest equipment.

The other institutes are Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), Rawalpindi, and Children`s Hospital, Multan.

An official tells Dawn that the government has for the first time introduced this scheme to identify problems emerging at the publicsector teaching hospitals with a sole purpose of addressing them under a structured programme.

He says on successful implementation, the scheme will be later replicated in all the teaching hospitals of the province.

For this purpose, the health department has conducted a comprehensive survey of the abovementioned hospitals. The survey shows that the abnormally high turnout of patients has been `a constant source of trouble` in providing uninterrupted and standard treatment to patients.

Many f acts about the sorry state of af f airs at the government hospi-tals have also been revealed in the survey report. The report encompasses some other problems the government hospitals have been f acing since long.

It says the Allied Hospital Faisalabad also stands on top of the shortlisted hospitals in respect of conducting various kinds of major and minor surgeries.

Even the Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, despite being the largest teaching hospital in the provincial capital, lags behind the Allied [Hospital] in providing widerange health services to patients.

The statistics show that being the sole mega health f acility in theregion, Allied Hospital requires immediate attention to cater to [health] needs of a vast population of the city [Faisalabad] and other nearby districts and villages.

Similarly, the BBH, Rawalpindi, treated 684,459 patients and Children`s Hospital, Multan, received 195,103 people last year.

The report further says the bed occupancy rate at the Children`s Hospital was 100pc, Jinnah Hospital 91pc and at BBH 85pc.

The Allied Hospital`s annual budget was Rs2,253 million that was provided in accordance with the allocated beds 1,385.