Hospitals in far-flung districts : IMU finds doctors, admin staff absent

Medical facilities also closed at night, labs locked

PESHAWAR:

The availability of medics at the medical teaching institutes (MTI) hospitals and other health facilities round the clock in the far-flung districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is a problem which is far from over despite all the efforts of the provincial government.

The Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) has sent a report to the K-P Health Department pointing out that most of the MTI hospitals are closed down after the evening and senior doctors leave after one o’clock in the afternoon while other staff was also found absent from duty on most occasions.

“These hospitals have been established in the far-flung district of K-P in order to facilitate the general public and provide quality treatment facilities in their own district so that they don’t have to travel to Peshawar and other districts but it has been found that these hospitals doesn’t operate round the clock,” said an official of the provincial health department while talking to The Express Tribune.

“If local hospitals are not operating at their full capacity then people will defiantly have to travel to Peshawar which is really expensive taking into account the state of inflation in the country,” he said, adding that strict action has been recommended.

“As per the report MS, DMS as well as senior doctors, specialists and administrative staff work till 1 pm each day at the district and teaching hospitals but during the night no senior doctor or administrative officer perform his duty so patients could not be treated and sent elsewhere,” said the official, adding that most hospitals are shut down in the night.

“It has been found that even in the afternoon doctors and paramedics have been found absent from duty regularly. Laboratories and X-rays rooms were also found locked and counters established for Sehat Card were also found closed,” he said.

“This has been forcing the patients to go to private hospitals. The report was sent to health department and it has been forwarded to the provincial government for strict action,” he said.

Teaching hospitals are meant to provide round-the-clock treatment facilities but the ground reality is very much different despite the fact that the IMU was created with an aim to keep a check on hospitals and other health units but even this has not changed the situation very much. Strict action has been recommended against those doctors who will be found absent in duty hours in order to correct this situation. The official said that doctors leave their duty and go to their private clinics. Hospitals are closed during nights so that patients go their private hospitals.

It may be recalled that in a bid to provide better healthcare facilities to the people, the provincial Health Department has started homework to run the underutilized healthcare facilities in some districts under Public Private Partnership (PPP).

This was revealed at a meeting with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair last year. The meeting took stock of the position impacts of reforms introduced, and deliberated upon matters related to further improve the healthcare service delivery system in the province.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2022.