Patients of the three allied hospital of Rawalpindi, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Holy Family Hospital, were faced with an acute shortage of free medicine. According to sources, the hospitals operated under the Health Department and Allied Hospitals and Rawalpindi Medical College Authority. Patients in Emergency and Intensive Care Units (ICUs) were provided medicines to a relatively greater extent, but the persons admitted in the hospitals and those visiting OPDs could not get medicines. The procedure of demand and supply of the medicines to the hospitals had also been changed. Earlier the MSs of each hospital used to send the supply order but now the principal of the Allied Hospitals and Rawalpindi Medical College sent the supply order under the policy of centralisation. According to the Punjab Health Department policy says that medicines would be provided to all the patients coming to the hospitals, but that is not going on in practical.
The hospital administration said that scarcity of the funds was the reason behind non-provision of sufficient medicines to the patients. Patients and their attendants expressed serious concerns on the prevailing situation in the hospitals and requested Punjab Health officials and principal Allied Hospitals and Rawalpindi Medical College to take practical steps to save them the nuisance.
