PESHAWAR: Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, the biggest and oldest hospital of the province, lacks spica cast and traction tables, which are used in orthopaedic related surgeries and this situation has been prevailing for the last 18 months. The spica cast and traction tables are used in femurs, calf-bone and tibia-bone fractures during surgeries of the patients of road accidents and other incidents. Not only the spica cast and traction tables missing in the biggest teaching hospital but oxygen kits are also not available at the nursery of the LRH hospital which are very important for new born babies. Talking to Daily Times, Dr. Saud Malik, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), said that most of the patients they received at KTH were referred by the LRH due to the non-availability of traction and spica tables. He added that the LRH received hundreds of such patients on a daily basis but due to the lack of spica and traction facilities they were referred to the KTH and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). Speaking about the importance of the spica and traction tables, Dr Saud said that a patient could become paralysed if he/she was not provided proper care on time. He also lamented over the lack of oxygen facilities at the LRH. He said oxygen kits were the basic need of a nursery and infants sometimes needed extra oxygen and if it was not provided to them it could result in their death. Similarly, babies infected with pneumonia and other viral diseases also direly needed oxygen at vital times, he informed. “A hospital must be equipped with such facilities,” he said, adding that health authorities should immediately provide the basic equipment to the LRH along with other healthcare facilities as the lack of the same was endangering many precious lives. Another source, on the condition of anonymity, said that many newborns had died at the LRH nursery due to the lack of oxygen facility but the hospital administration was yet to take any practical action to resolve the problem. The new neurosurgery ward of the LRH also lacks beds to accommodate patients as many patients were seen lying on stretchers by this scribe. A number of patients complained that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s claims of making LRH a model hospital in the province were mere lip service as no practical steps had been taken to provide the medical facility with even the basic equipment so far.