Hospital of last resort in Pakistan faces closure

The Associated Press In this Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, photo, a Pakistani nurse, right, helps a child to walk in a corridor, part of the patient daily treatment, while children, left, who live at St. Josephs Hospice, chat in a ward of the hospice, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Mohammed Aqeel spent weeks at home in Pakistan waiting for death after suffering a debilitating spinal cord injury in a car crash before friends suggested he come to St. Josephs Hospice on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad. Now 13 years later, his life and those of some 40 others who live on its grounds might be changed forever as this hospital of last resort faces closure over its rising debts. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

By MUNIR AHMED/Associated Press/February 24, 2014

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) Mohammed Aqeel spent weeks at home in Pakistan waiting for death after suffering a debilitating spinal cord injury in a car crash before friends suggested he come to St. Josephs Hospice on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad.

Now 13 years later, his life and those of some 40 others who live on its grounds might be changed forever as this hospital of last resort faces closure over its rising debts.

I will helplessly weep and what else can I do? Aqeel asked, tears rolling down his face.

Since 1964, St. Josephs Hospice has treated hundreds of maimed and sick patients, overwhelmingly Muslims, who had nowhere else to go even as Pakistan experienced two military coups, wars in neighboring Afghanistan and a dangerous rise in militancy. But as wealthy donors and foreign benefactors fled the violence and unrest, so too did the endowments the hospice relies on to treat some 100 patients who visit daily.

Pakistans abysmal health care sector is starved for money, the latest technology and drugs and those who cant afford care have turned to St. Joseph's. The hospice has a monthly budget of about 1.5 million rupees $15,000 but officials there say they have been facing a shortfall of half a million rupees (about $5,000) a month. They've borrowed money and cut costs as low as they can, but theres not much more they can do.

Initially, we managed to handle the situation, but now the situation is alarming, said Margaret Walsh, an Irish nun who has run the facility as the chief administrator since 2009. I feel pain when I think about the worst scenario of closing down the hospital.

Rising costs from ever-increasing utility bills has deeply affected St. Joseph's, said Rehmat Michael Hakim, chairman of the hospitals executive committee that oversees the functions of the hospice. He said the hospice relies on generators during electricity outages to warm paralyzed patients.

If we dont use electricity heaters in winter, the patients will die of cold, Hakim said.

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Hospital of last resort in Pakistan faces closure