Pantang Hospital Near Collapse

The management and staff of Pantang Hospital are left with no option than to discharge mentally ill patients due to inadequate food and medicine for the patients. Patients in convalescence are allegedly forced out by management to enable the hospital to admit new patients. Checks by The Independent indicate, this has been the situation for the past five years and government as well as management members of the facility are to be blamed. Our sources alleged, government has stopped providing funds to them for five years now, making the hospital to run into huge debts. The hospital now owes pharmaceutical companies, food suppliers and other service providers. They now make do with internally generated funds (IGFs) which are woefully inadequate. Access to portable water leaves much to be desired; the two water tankers that serve the hospital have also broken down due to an engine failure. Due to the situation, staff purchase their own water for domestic activities and this has been happening since 2002. A source close to the hospital told The Independent the Medical Director, Dr. Anna Puklo Dzade, has also not been proactive enough when it comes to fighting for the needed logistics the hospital needs to operate. The source said the medical director sometimes take solitary decisions and implement them the way she wants without the consent of other management members. This source complained has resulted in the underdevelopment of the hospital. She was indeed described as an �authoritarian�.