Facilities running out: Bannu hospitals face medicine, staff shortage with influx of displaced families

Nearly 6,000 patients brought to DHQ Bannu since the exodus began.

PESHAWAR: Uncertainty, food insecurity and the lack of proper shelter are not the only problems the internally displaced persons of North Waziristan are facing. Bannu’s harsh weather and lack of facilities in hospitals are making matters worse for them.

Nearly 6,000 displaced people suffering from various ailments have reportedly been brought in to the District Headquarters Hospital, Bannu. However, the facility is struggling to provide them proper services in the face of shortages of both staff and medicines.

Requesting anonymity, a doctor at Bannu hospital told The Express Tribune via telephone more than 6,000 displaced patients, a majority of them children and women, have visited DHQ since the arrivals began.

“The most common conditions being reported are diarrhoea, malaria, skin infections, cholera and dehydration,” he said. “As there is a shortage of medicines, we have to instruct patients to buy them from pharmacies.”

“Our medicines have nearly run out but the number of patients keeps increasing every day,” said the doctor.

For his part, Bannu DHQ Medical Superintendant (MS) Dr Jehangir Khan disagreed with the complaints of a medicine shortage. “All necessary medicines are available in all three public hospitals of Bannu. There is no shortage and the displaced people are being treated,” he claimed.

Jehangir added that they have made special arrangements for these families in all hospitals. “We have cancelled the leave of all staffers and have ensured that doctors are available 24 hours a day,” said the MS.

“We have brought in doctors from Bannu Medical College and requested the provincial health department to send women doctors as well,” claimed Jehangir.

The displaced families, however, are dissatisfied with the health care. Hameesh Khan told The Express Tribune on Wednesday that when the military operation started in the agency, his family initially decided to move to Afghanistan, however, relatives convinced them to move to Bannu instead as it was within the country.

“We walked for three days under the harsh sun to reach Bannu but after we arrived here we realised there are no facilities available for displaced persons,” said the father of five.

Khan said that due to the hot weather many of his family members had fallen ill. “I have brought my two children to the DHQ hospital as they are suffering from diarrhoea and malaria but there are no facilities available here,” claimed Khan.

He added that the hospital was flooded with patients who were mostly displaced families and there was a shortage of doctors. He appealed to the government to send teams of doctors to the DHQ along with medicines and the equipment to treat children in particular.

Ameen Gul Wazir, another displaced person, faced the death of a child on his way to Bannu. “The journey was difficult, the weather too hot and then we had to wait in long lines at the check post,” he said. “We are accustomed to cold weather; our children cannot stand the heat.”

Several of Wazir’s children have diarrhoea and he took them to the DHQ hospital in Bannu. “There are no doctors or medicines here. They don’t even have separate facilities for women,” added Wazir.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2014.