Staffers, patients suffer at CDA Hospital

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) Hospital, once considered as a centre of excellence for primary to tertiary healthcare facilities, is now losing its ideal image because of the slackness on the part of CDA as numerous problems, including the severe shortage of staff and medicines besides lack of treatment for the poor patients have become the hallmark for the hospital.
Located in one of the oldest sector G/6-2 of the capital, the hospital is apparently fine-looking but has many problems inside its premises. Whether they are staffers or patients, no one is satisfied with the present state of affairs. Although there are many problems but the most prominent are the shortage of paramedic staff and medicines required for the patients. Several members of paramedical staff in the CDA Hospital, while talking to Pakistan Today, complained that especially the nurses had to face the a number of problems while performing their duties.
“One nurse is doing the duty of two or three due to the shortage of staff,” said Shaheena, a nurse working at a children ward.
According to her, work becomes hectic for them when the number of patient increases. She said the average number of outdoor patients, daily visiting the ward, stood around 50 whereas four to five patients were admitted in the ward every day.
There are around 17 to 18 wards in the hospital including children, officers, skin, CCU, ICU, gynaecology, labour room, male surgical, female surgical, eye and orthopaedic, but all of them have same condition and crisis. “No one is paying heed towards the problems being faced by us and patients. We have to face the discourteous behaviour of the patient on unavailability of the medicines,” said Uzma, another nurse working in the officers ward. She said they had to deal with more than 20 patients at a time, which was not an easy job.
The same problem also puts the young doctors into dilemma as they have to work for hours in the wards. “We have to provide medicine doze to the patients in the absence of nurse because it is not possible for a single female to take care of number of patients at a time” said a female young doctor who wished not to be named. She said the supply of medicines also often remained short, resulting in sufferings for poor patients.
She further said sometimes they were unable to provide efficient treatment to the patients in serious condition due to the same problem.
The staffers of the hospital said though the capital hospital was better than the other government-run hospitals, like the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and Polyclinic, but there were still many issues, which needed the attention of the CDA high-ups.
While sharing their plight with Pakistan Today, many poor nurses and other employees also complained that despite their tall claims, the “baboos” of CDA did not provide them the conveyance facilities. “We have to pay Rs 3,000 per month to the private transporters whereas it is the responsibility of the authority to ensure provision of basic facilities, including transportation, to its employees,” said Hamid Raza, a paramedic staffer.
On the other hand, patients complain that they have to buy the medicines from the market despite the fact that it is a responsibility of the hospital administration.
During a visit to the hospital, this scribe also observed that the lady doctor concerned in the labour room was shouting for the required medicines and equipment but it took a long time to bring the required items. It was clear evidence of the crisis being faced by the hospital.
Interestingly, a common headache, irritating both the nurses and patients, is their rude attitude towards each other. Several patients complained that they had to face a lot of problems due to the ignorance and poor attitude of the nurses towards the attendants. Similar claims were made by the nurses who said that they tried their best to remain calm but in some cases they lost their composure.
A senior official in the CDA hospital, seeking anonymity, said that the shortage of staff was the issue being faced by the hospital for last one year. He said the authority had banned fresh and the posts of those employees, who had retired last year, were also lying vacant but no new appointment was made to fill the gap.
Commenting on the transport facility for the hospital employees, he said the CDA high-ups claimed many times to ensure the provision of transportation for the staffers but nothing had been done so far to address the issue.The spokesman for CDA, Ramzan Sajid, could not be approached for his comments despite several attempts made by this scribe.

(Names of the nurses have been changed on their request)