Renewable resource: Health dept can’t say if solar option is feasible

Chief minister’s directive goes un-implemented

LAHORE: Last month, an unverified photo pertaining to Mayo Hospital went viral wherein doctors were pictured conducting a candlelit surgery.

Nearly a year ago, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had stepped-up efforts to revamp the situation by directing the Health Department to formulate a feasibility report on the conversion of BHUs to solar power. The proposal has been gathering dust since then.

A Health Department official told The Express Tribune that the idea would be shelved indefinitely if a feasibility report was not formulated before the provincial budget was presented. “Solar energy is a godsend for health facilities in rural areas. Such facilities are understaffed as few are prepared to relocate to remote areas due to paucity of basic amenities,” he said.

The Health Department has been operating 2,500 BHUs. The units offer a host of services ranging from health programmes, pregnancy tests and anti-venom medication to first aid. BHUs have been established at the union council level. One BHU serves at least 25,000 people per month. In addition to basic healthcare, BHUs serve as outposts for malaria and tuberculosis control.

YDA general secretary Salman Kazi said most public hospitals had been grappling with long spells of power outages in Lahore alone. Who knows what has been transpiring in underdeveloped areas of the Punjab, he said. Kazi said the proposal to convert BHUs to solar power was a sound one. “The government must quickly work on it as it will benefit the underprivileged,” he said.

Kazi said some of the largest hospitals worldwide had been running on solar power. He said the government should strive to convert all public health facilities and not just BHUs to solar power. “The country has been reeling from a pressing power crisis. Even hospitals have not been spared of unannounced load-shedding,” Kazi said. Health Department Spokesperson Ikhlaq Ali Khan acknowledged that the department had not been able to formulate the aforesaid report. “The government wants to convert all public schools and health facilities to solar power. The department has been taking great interest in exploiting alternative energy sources for the benefit of the underprivileged,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2016.