DMC East dispensaries only partially operational

An employee lives along with her family in one of the dispensaries in Manzoor Colony

KARACHI:

in several health centers within the jurisdiction of District Municipal Corporation East as they could not have been made operational. No physician is available in these dispensaries even although such a government-run health facility typically has at least four doctors. The situation has deprived the densely populated areas of medical facilities.

As per details, a dispensary established in Manzoor Colony does not have enough doctors, which creates problems for patients visiting it for treatment. The dispensary has suffered due to administrative carelessness. According to locals, the administration cannot completely operationalize the dispensary even in the morning hours.

The Express Tribune team discovered during a visit to the facility that a DMC employee, along with her family, resides there. When contacted, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of DMC, Zartaj Pasha, tried to defend it by giving a strange justification. “This dispensary is supposed to be converted into a maternity unit, which requires a doctor or a female nurse to stay at the facility round-the-clock for any emergency,” Pasha said.

However, the conversion of the dispensary into a maternity unit is being held up due to a shortage of staff, including doctors, nurses, and medical equipment, according to Pasha. It has become a challenge to allocate staff duties in many dispensaries run by the DMC due to a staff shortage. “We have spoken to DMC East Administrator Syed Shakeel Ahmed and he has promised that the issue will be resolved soon,” Pasha added.

While local residents complained, the administration should act quickly to upgrade this dispensary because this will lessen burden on the city’s main hospitals if people get treatment for common diseases at dispensaries located near their homes. The employee who lives in the dispensary along with her family claims that the DMC deducts house rent from her salary. “The land mafia occupied the dispensary building when the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) handed it over to the DMC, therefore presence of DMC staff is intended to protect it from land grabbers,” according to the family.