Pakistan

Health monitor: Tehsils ill-prepared to deal with skin and ENT diseases

Most secondary care hospitals lack specialised health services, says FAFEN.

Express April 11, 2011

ISLAMABAD:

Over 90 per cent of secondary care hospitals at Tehsil and Taluka administrative levels lack specialised healthcare services to cater to patients suffering from skin and ENT diseases, according to a nationwide monitoring report of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The report is based on the visits of FAFEN governance monitors to 46 Tehsil Headquarters (THQs) in 39 districts during February 2011. Twenty two of these THQs were located in 17 districts of Punjab, 13 in 12 districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), nine in eight districts of Sindh and two in two districts of Balochistan.

Up to 93 per cent of the monitored THQs also lacked cardiology services while 89 per cent did not have adequate facilities for orthopaedic (bone) ailments. Moreover, 72 per cent lacked ophthalmology (eye) services, while 39 per cent did not have surgical facilities.

FAFEN suggests that the severe dearth of such specialised services may be responsible for the high incidence of skin and ENT diseases, as reported by the network in its Health Scan Reports for January and February. According to the reports, scabies was the third most officially reported disease in 24 districts and respiratory tract infections remained the most commonly reported set of diseases in monitored districts. Moreover, the deficiencies increase the burden of patients at District Headquarters or tertiary care hospitals.

Another alarming observation was the lack of pathology (diagnostic) and radiology (diagnosis through imaging) services in 74 per cent and 63 per cent of the monitored THQs, respectively. This is noteworthy, as according to previous FAFEN reports, 45,485 diseases in Health Offices were undiagnosed.

According to the report, oversight by public and elected officials was observed to be poor, which may be responsible for the startling lack of specialist departments.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2011.