LAHORE - The discriminatory policy of the Cabinet Division, Islamabad towards the Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, has almost paralysed health service system and administrative matters of the institute putting the lives of the patients at stake. Shaikh Zayed Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore is the only full-fledged health institute in the country being run by the Cabinet Division. While all the other hospitals are either under the federal government Health department or the provincial governments Health departments. Senior officers in Cabinet Division were not looking serious in redressing the problems of hospital doctors, paramedical staff and for the better health care of the patients. At present, Shaikh Zayed Hospital is going through many multifaceted problems, including the issue of Board of Governors, which was not reconstituted since the PPP has come into power, delay in issuance of funds for medicine, general items, ongoing development schemes and other projects for the last one year. Foremost problem, according to the sources, was the non-availability of medicines in the hospital. They said, at present, Shaikh Zayed Hospital was facing a deficit of Rs 200m, the acute shortage of funds that had never been reported in the past since the hospital was established. As many as 50 companies have stopped supply of medicines, general and other necessary items to the hospital due to non-payment. Despite a lot of efforts by the hospital management, the Cabinet Division was not giving due attention in issuing funds to the hospital, which has doubled the miseries of the patients especially those visiting the hospital from far-flung areas of the province. The sources said that the patients are not being provided normal items even syringes and those surgical items that are used in almost every minor or major operation like elastic bandage, surgical gloves, spinal needle, pyodine, antibiotics, surgical drain, plaster bandage etc. It is well to mention here that earlier these surgical items were available in the hospital from the day one. Besides surgical items, the hospital was also facing acute shortage of all kinds of medicines for the last one year. Patients are purchasing medicines, general items and surgical items for operations from the local markets. Senior surgeons of the hospital have several times informed the hospital administration that quality or standard of the surgical items the patients are purchasing from the local markets are not up to the mark and causing infection. Another major problem was the aggravating situation of the hospital's administrative matters as the Board of Governors, which was abolished by the new government of the PPP, was not reconstituted since then. Resultantly, the promotion matters of the doctors, paramedical staff, employees were lying unattended. While the pace of work on ongoing development schemes and projects has also been disturbed badly. Senior doctors of the hospital termed it a conspiracy of the bureaucracy in the Cabinet Division, which did not want to transfer its control to the Federal government Health department. They said that the situation is rather better in the other hospitals being controlled by the federal health ministry including the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad (PIMS), Poly Clinic Hospital, Islamabad, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi, National Institute of Child Health, Karachi etc. Bureaucracy in Cabinet Division was responsible for the aggravating condition of the health care in Shaikh Zayed Hospital, they said and added that resultantly everything has been paralysed in the institute.