New admission policy causing trouble at KTH

The Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) has changed the policy of direct admission at the hospital and has appointed bed managers causing a lot many problems for the patients and their attendants on almost daily basis.

Officials told The Express Tribune that there are five bed managers who are hard to find by the patients and they often admit patients to other wards causing them inconvenience in an emergency situations.

“No the professors, senior registrars and other doctors have no say in it. They can’t admit patients. These bed managers often send patients to irrelevant wards and this could only be corrected by the senior registrar which is time consuming. This has turned the KTH into a mess since the start of the new admission policy. KTH is one of the three main hospitals of the province and thousands of people come here for treatment each day,” said the official, adding that most of the poor patients come here from the far-flung district in an emergency who are turned back.

“These poor people can’t do anything so they are taking to social media by making videos of their ordeals and posting it online. When these people are told that there is no bed available they often clash with the administration and this policy is causing new trouble to the administration as well as the general public,” he said, adding that just recently a patient uploaded his video online which could be watched by anyone.

“The fact is that after Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) the number of beds has been decreased at the KTH which is unfortunate because the population of the province and city has been increasing each passing day instead of decreasing,” said another official, adding that a new block has been constructed at KTH but even then the number of beds have been decreased in order to make the hospital of ‘international standards’.

“There is not the only reduction in the number of beds but the number of medical and surgical wards have also been reduced as in the past there were five surgical wards and five medical wards but the number has been reduced to four each recently,” he said, adding that KTH was the second largest hospital in the province and the new policy was not sensible by any means.

“People are suffering due to this new policy of admission, reduction in the number of beds as well as wards. This has not turned the hospital into a world-class medical facility. It has been causing trouble for the general public,” said the official.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2021.