Balochistan Governor Malik Abdul Wali Khan Kakar has expressed concern at the non-functional labour rooms in most of the district headquarter hospitals of the province, calling for immediate steps to resolve the issue.
He expressed these views while addressing the participants of the 15th Pakistan Pediatric Conference 2024. Caretaker Health Minister Dr Amir Muhammad Jogaizai, Pediatric Neurology President Dr Shahnaz Ibrahim, Organising Committee Chairman Dr Habibullah Babar, Dr Jamal Raza, Dr Attaullah Bizenjo and Dr Tipu Sultan besides others were present.
Addressing the conference, the governor said that if the medicines provided by the government did not reach the patients, no meaningful change would come after spending billions of rupees from the federal and provincial budgets in various sectors.
“If doctors and teachers do not attend health and educational institutions, who is responsible for it,” he questioned. “To change these unfavourable conditions, we have to speak the truth, as time demands that we all sit together to find a lasting solution.”
He said that today’s prestigious conference and holding a conference on a sensitive but very important topic regarding children’s health, especially neurology was a commendable act, the purpose of which was to define a healthy society.
“It is a fact that the bright future of a country or nation is conditioned by mentally and physically healthy people,” he said, inviting experts from different fields of life, especially neurologists, to help in devising a comprehensive strategy at the national level.
He said, “We are sure that such conscious efforts will yield positive results.”
The governor said that Balochistan, which was relatively a backward province, had the highest maternal and child mortality rate even today as due to the small but dispersed population of the province, it was a big challenge to bring basic health facilities to the doorsteps of the people.
He said that it was also a sad aspect of society that children were seen in various shops, hotels, garages and rubbish heaps.
“In a house where there is severe poverty and the parents are also not educated, in such a situation, parents cannot do anything for the education and treatment of their children,” he said.
He said that even in this advanced age of science and technology, thousands of people in Balochistan died every year from curable diseases like malaria, jaundice, polio and TB.
“I am proud that today I am present among dedicated doctors who are working day and night to solve physical ailments as well as mental health problems,” he noted.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 25th, 2024.
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