Daily Times

KHYBER AGENCY: Staff of the Landikotal Agency Headquarters Hospital on Thursday threatened to stage a set-it if load shedding was not reduced. Dr Ashiq, Dr Khial Wali Shinwari, Dr Feroz Shah, Dr Sattar Shinwari and paramedic staff leader Wali Khan Afridi said that due to prolonged power cuts, work in all the units at the hospital, including in the operation theaters, out patients department (OPD) and intensive care units had severely been affected.

“There are around 20 hours of load shedding in the hospital everyday,” they said. Dr Ashiq said that Rs 800 million worth of HCV, HIV-AIDS and polio vaccines stored in the hospital had been wasted due to excessive load shedding. “We held two rounds of dialogues with Tribal Electric Supply Company (TESCO) Chief Engineer Ikramullah to resolve the matter, but failed to convince him to provide any relief to the hospital,” Dr Ashiq said. He said that the political agent and assistant political agent of Landikotal had earlier asked TESCO to reduce load shedding, but nothing had been done.

“The hospital pays millions of rupees every year in electricity bills. However, no arrangement had been made by TESCO to provide any relief to the hospital or its patients,” Dr Ashiq said. To a question, Dr Ashiq said that they would only end their strike if the electricity supply situation improved. The doctors and paramedics staff urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor and MNA Shajee Gul Afridi to intervene and ensure that the hospital was provided electricity.

Published in Daily Times, July 21^st, 2017.