A severe shortage of basic medical facilities for patients has been revealed in government hospitals across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the lack of hospital beds—particularly ICU beds—has become a serious issue province-wide.

According to available data from the Health Department, there are only 36,040 beds in all government hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As a result, on average, only one bed is available for every 1,133 people in the province, which is extremely low and alarming compared to global standards.

The data further shows that the total number of beds in the province’s 10 Medical Teaching Institutions (MTI) hospitals is 10,832. Based on population ratio, these MTI hospitals have only one bed for every 377 people, due to which the patient burden on these hospitals has increased to an abnormal level.

According to the Health Department, the total number of ICU beds in MTI hospitals is only 313. This means that there is just one ICU bed available for more than 130,000 people in the province, indicating a highly dangerous situation for emergency and critically ill patients.

It has also been reported that the province has 63 Category D, 13 Category B, and 26 Category C government hospitals. In addition, 137 Rural Health Centers (RHCs) are functioning to provide basic healthcare facilities in rural areas. However, these facilities are insufficient in proportion to the population.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), developing countries should have at least 4 to 5 beds per 1,000 population, while developed countries are required to have 1,000 beds for every 10,000 people. Compared to these standards, the healthcare facilities available in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are extremely limited.

Health experts say that the shortage of beds and ICU facilities is not only causing severe difficulties for patients but is also affecting the quality of treatment in hospitals. Therefore, immediate government attention and urgent measures are required.