Service delivery: Funds hiccups ground Mobile Health Units

Health Dept says ‘administrative changes’ causing delay.

LAHORE:

Several Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) members from south Punjab plan to submit an adjournment motion in the assembly secretariat against discontinuation of Mobile Health Units (MHU) services in their areas.

The members also plan on protesting in front of the assembly.

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has decided to support the PPP members. Around two dozen MPAs from the two parties have so far signed the draft.

The motion will be moved by PPP’s Athar Khan Gorchani, who belongs to Rajanpur, and a Bahawalnagar MPA, Shaukat Mehmood Basra.

According to the draft, the MHUs in Rajanpur, Mianwali, DG Khan, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur and Bahawalngar stopped functioning three months ago. MHU employees have not been paid in two months, states the draft. The draft motion demands that the Punjab government utilise Rs3 billion – that it plans on using to import more MHUs – for improving services and facilities at Basic Health Units and Rural Health Centres.

The draft says that the MHUs should deliver services “indiscriminately”. The draft alleges that the MHUs (when they were functioning) didn’t visit constituencies represented by opposition members. It also calls for Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to immediately appoint a health minister. Gorchani told The Express Tribune that the Rajanpur MHU only visited Jampur, a constituency represented by a PML-N member.

PPP Deputy Parliamentary Leader in the Punjab Assembly, Shaukat Basra, said that the opposition wanted to discuss the issue because health was a universal right, regardless of their political affiliation.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr Saeed Elahi and Special Assistant to Chief Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique did not respond to requests for comment.

A Health Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, attributed non-payment of salaries and stopping of funds for the procurement of basic items to “administrative changes in the department”.

He denied that the MHUs had stopped functioning three months ago. “It’s only been a month,” he said.

A private company manages the operation of the MHUs, he said, adding that the Health Department pays it Rs7 million per month (for six MHUs) for salaries and other expenditures. “After the removal of the health secretary, there’s no one authorised to sign cheques,” the official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2012.