A major imbalance has been revealed in the medicines budget provided to eight major government hospitals in Lahore.
According to budget documents, Mayo Hospital, considered one of the largest treatment facilities in Asia with 2,800 beds, has been allocated the lowest per bed budget. Only 476,000 rupees per bed annually have been allocated for Mayo Hospital, while more than 3.29 million rupees per bed have been provided to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology.
The Punjab Institute of Neurosciences has been given 3 million rupees per bed. In the government budget, Services Hospital has been allocated 857,000 rupees per bed, Jinnah Hospital 727,000 rupees per bed, General Hospital 819,000 rupees per bed, and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital 1.946 million rupees per bed.
Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital has been provided 2.4 million rupees per bed. Medical experts say that due to the unfair distribution of the budget, shortages of medicines are emerging in major hospitals, with poor patients being the most affected.
Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said that fair distribution of the budget among all government hospitals is the top priority, and from the new fiscal year a new hospital budget formula will be introduced based on the number of beds and patient load.
