The original total cost of the project was Rs 2.2 billion, subsequently revised in 2020 and 2021 and finally reached Rs 9.7 billion.
PESHAWAR:
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to appoint a new Board of Governors for the province’s only children’s hospital, the Khyber Institute of Child Health (KICH) in Hayatabad, following its recent elevation to Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) status.
The summary of the appointment of the board members has been sent to the prime minister for approval.
Sources revealed that KICH has been mired in delays for more than 12 years. Initially, the hospital suffered from a lack of federal funding. However, the provincial government has already secured funding to complete the project.
Despite this, civil works have faced setbacks, and even after payments were made eight years ago, the hospital remained entangled between the Department of Works and Services and contractors. The C&W Department had requested an extra month to conduct testing and complete it, even though the government had planned to open the children’s hospital in December.
According to sources, 80 per cent of the construction of the hospital was completed in the last 12 years. Work on the 290-bed facility, started in 2013, was initially expected to be completed in 2016. The original total cost of the project was Rs 2.2 billion, subsequently revised in 2020 and 2021 due to rising costs, and finally reached Rs 9.7 billion, while the government released only Rs 5.2 billion. The completion deadline was extended to June 2023, but funding shortages continued to hamper progress.
The hospital’s development was plagued by funding gaps, first from the federal government under the PSDP and then from the provincial government. However, biomedical gas systems, a modular operating room, internal sewage, and heating and cooling systems up to the fourth floor have already been installed.
Once operational, the hospital will provide emergency OPD services, diagnostic and radiology facilities, pediatric surgery and all subspecialties of pediatric medicine. Work is also underway to introduce fetal surgery, bone marrow and kidney transplants, and pediatric urology.
