Health woes: Ministers, PIMS head visit Bannu to assess health issues in IDP camps

ISLAMABAD:

A delegation of ministers and health officials will travel to Bannu to inspect the health facilities available for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the area.

State Minister for Health Saira Afzal Tarar, State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Barrister Usman Ibrahim and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU), Vice-Chancellor Javed Akram will leave the federal capital for Bannu on Tuesday evening.



They will visit Bannu District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital to ensure provision of health facilities for IDPs from North Waziristan Agency (NWA).

Talking to The Express Tribune, Akram said they would assess the availability of healthcare facilities at the Bannu DHQ hospital and judge what is needed to overcome the gaps.

“The shortage of medical staff and drugs continues to get worse with the surge in IDPs arriving in Bannu,” he said.



Akram said that a team of 40 doctors, paramedics and other staff from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) continues to work at the Bannu DHQ Hospital. The team has treated 600 to 800 patients on an average for the last two weeks, the vice-chancellor said.

“We are sending three more gynaecologists and an assistant professor, Dr Nasira Tasneem, to Bannu to deal with expecting mothers as many of them are having complications,” he said.

To overcome the shortage of drugs, Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI) has donated life-saving medicines worth Rs1.5 million for the displaced persons, Akram said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a doctor at Bannu DHQ Hospital said that almost 60 per cent of the displaced persons were falling ill due to bad weather conditions, dust and overcrowding at places where they were staying.

“Around 10 to 15 people are sharing single-room accommodations. Even if just one of them is suffering from flu or any other communicable disease, everyone else is at risk,” he said.

Maintaining their personal hygiene has become another major challenge, he said, adding that prolonged power outages are also worsening the situation.

The doctor said that DHQ Bannu was already facing shortage of doctors and medicines due to which it was facing immense difficulties in handling the sharp rise in the number of patients.

“It’s good that experienced doctors and paramedical staff from Pims and Polyclinic hospital have come to assist us, otherwise it would have been impossible for us to treat them,” said the doctor.

He said that majority of the doctors working in three major hospitals of the district had started asking displaced persons to visit their clinic for treatment.



“There they started overcharging on consultancy fees as well as for medicine,” the doctor said.

The district government took strict action and suspended the medical superintendents of the hospitals, he said.

The doctor told The Express Tribune that army personnel had been asked to monitor hospitals in the district treating the displaced persons on a daily basis and make sure the doctors were present on duty during their official work hours.

The authorities have announced that if any government doctor in the area was found in a private clinic during official duty hours instead of at their assigned hospital, his or her medical license will be cancelled.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2014.