Govt outsourcing investigative services in DHQ hospitals.

PESHAWAR -- The health department is outsourcing pathology and radiology services at district headquarters hospitals under public-private partnership initiative to provide unhindered services to the patients.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation advertised the plan on October 16 to invite applications from the interested groups and organisations having expertise in the area of radiology and pathology and select the ones with sound background to start services in district headquarters hospitals.

About 100 firms have shown their interest to enter into partnership with the health department, according to officials. They added that a new advertisement would be floated to ask the interested groups to show their experience in the area of health diagnostics and final selection was expected within a month.

Officials hopeful about success of public-private partnership initiative

Officials said that the move was meant to provide uninterrupted investigative services and subsequent treatment to people in district headquarters hospitals as opposed to the existing situation where equipment installed at the cost of millions of rupees were lying unutilised owing to lack of maintenance or non-availability of electricity.

They said that agreement would be signed with the successful parties in all districts of the province after examining their infrastructure to ensure that they could provide quality services to people.

'They would be charging government-approved rates from the patients for X-ray, ultrasound, CT scan, MRI and laboratory tests in the respective hospitals,' said officials.

They said that in several cases costly machines set up by the government were into disuse after few months because there was lack of maintenance. 'For a petty maintenance work, the government has to move applications that take long time and as a result the patients suffer,' said officials.

They said that government would provide space, electricity...