Thirteen years after it was approved, a dedicated children’s hospital in Mardan remains only half alive on paper and in concrete, with funding gaps preventing the facility from serving the very patients it was built for.
The 200-bed Children Hospital Mardan, sanctioned in 2011 on the premises of Mardan Medical Complex (MMC), was supposed to be fully functional by 2014.
Today, only the out-patient department operates, squeezed into existing OPD space, while the main building, planned as a hub for specialized pediatric care, still waits for the funds needed to finish and staff it.
Doctors and administrators say this winter has brutally exposed the cost of the delay. With respiratory infections like flu and pneumonia surging, they describe scenes where three to four sick children are placed on a single bed.
At times, they added, even supplemental oxygen is not available in sufficient quantity, forcing pediatricians to improvise with three-way nasal prongs to keep severely ill children breathing.
MMC’s current setup, just a 50-bed children’s ward and a 45-bed nursery, is already stretched well past capacity. Officials argue that a fully operational children’s hospital is no longer a luxury but a necessity for Mardan and the neighboring districts of Charsadda, Malakand, Dir, Bajaur, and Nowshera, where advanced pediatric services are scarce.
Once completed, the hospital is expected to host around 20 pediatric sub‑specialties, serving nearly one million children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s second most populous district.
On paper, much of the physical work looks impressive. Civil construction on three floors has been completed. Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are in place, and the four‑storey structure has five lifts and a central heating and cooling plant.
A large basement offers parking space for roughly 100 vehicles. The design includes five operating theatres, a nursery, day-care services, and a thalassemia centre.
To actually run all this, however, the hospital will need about Rs. 420 million a year and a workforce of 1,125 staff members. Officials say a formal requisition for these posts and funds has been sent to the provincial government, but progress has been slow, and completion dates keep drifting.
Health administrators stress that finishing and activating Children Hospital Mardan would significantly ease pressure on Peshawar’s big three, Lady Reading Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex, and Khyber Teaching Hospital, whose pediatric wards are perpetually overloaded.