Planning ahead: Free health camps likely to be scrapped

National Emergency Action Plan to decide fate of these facilities



A series of free health camps initiated in high-risk areas of the province are likely to be scrapped. A National Emergency Action Plan for 2016-17 will decide whether to let these initiatives continue or close them down.

Various health activities are being carried out across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. These include a three-month project to hold free health camps in high-risk areas.

Health camps were being held over the last two months in areas where facilities were not available or lacking.

However, services being offered by Unicef, in collaboration with various aid organisations, will come to an end. “[The services offered] by Unicef in collaboration with other aid organisations are extremely important,” a senior health expert said. “The organisations have been assisting the government in areas with missing or lacking health facilities.”

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Favourable response

The health expert, requesting anonymity, said camps were announced for April, May and June and received a positive response from the public.

He said the services of doctors were hired and they were offered a handsome amount, whereas medicines and vaccines, specifically for children, were also provided to combat or prevent various ailments.

“We were extremely happy to see people benefiting from the camps, but our resources are not likely to let us continue this,” he said.

The expert added the cost of medicines was so high that the programme to hold free medical camps will have to end as soon as this month. Moreover, salaries also need to be provided to workers.

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He said people hoped the programme would continue since a large number of people from underprivileged backgrounds benefited from the camps.

Various illnesses and viruses, including polio and measles, were being reported in Peshawar, Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Tank. That was the reason these areas were identified for the camps, the expert added.

“It is a fact that the ratio, or we can say the coverage, for routine immunisation in K-P, overall, and the four districts, in particular, was low,” the health expert told The Express Tribune. “Therefore, health camps were focused in these areas.”

Awaiting action

“We have been receiving a huge response,” UNICEF’s K-P polio eradication team leader Dr Johar confirmed. “But I can’t say if we will end or carry on the project since all of that will be decided during the National Emergency Action Plan 2016-17.”

He said the government was being supported and the priority was to reach children who missed immunisation for any reason.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2016.

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