Long-delayed hospital gets new deadline
Mother and Child Hospital renamed Children's Hospital
After languishing for four years, the ambitious Mother and Child Hospital, originally conceived by former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, is set to open with a new name and deadline. The project has been rebranded as the Children's Hospital, with a revised completion date of December 31, 2026. The cost of the endeavor has surged by 50 percent, primarily due to the soaring prices of construction materials such as steel, tiles, and marble flooring.
Despite the delay, various restoration tasks, including the installation of windows, doors, and plumbing systems, have recommenced at the partially completed facility.
Rawalpindi Commissioner Salman Ghani conducted a comprehensive inspection of the ongoing construction site on Asghar Mall Road, scrutinizing the project's overall progress and construction quality. Current progress is reported to be at 25 percent, with the primary structure already finished. Ghani emphasized the significance of the Children's Hospital for the region, noting that no specialized public hospital for children exists in Rawalpindi or its surrounding areas.
Once operational, the hospital will offer modern healthcare services to thousands of children, eliminating the necessity for families to seek medical care in distant cities.
Ghani instructed the project authorities to ensure all essential and contemporary facilities, such as separate executive washrooms for men and women, ample parking space, comfortable waiting areas, clean drinking water, efficient drainage systems, proper sanitation, modern lifts and ramps, emergency access, clear signage, wheelchair accessibility, backup power, robust fire safety measures, and foolproof security.
Additionally, he mandated the swift completion of modern medical equipment, specialized children's wards, emergency services, intensive care units, operation theatres, laboratories, pharmacies, and other medical departments to enable the hospital to provide comprehensive medical services upon its opening. Ghani stressed the importance of continuous monitoring of every phase of the construction process, stringent adherence to construction standards, and the immediate removal of any hindrances that could impede the project's timely completion.
Written by urgent.news from The Express Tribune - Pakistan's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
