Health woes: Basic health units across the country lack trained staff says FAFEN

Report blames weak implementation of health policies, oversight.

ISLAMABAD:

There is shortage of trained staff in basic health units (BHUs) across the country to treat tuberculosis (TB) patients or to run malaria and diarrhoeal disease control programmes, according to the Free and Fair Election Network’s (FAFEN) latest monitoring report.

The report was prepared from data collected from 153 BHUs in 95 districts across the country between October 2011 and September 2012.

The report states that 2,281 people on average are affected by tuberculosis every month across the country, while the number is 3,208 for malaria and 420,140 for diarrhoea and dysentery. But in spite of that, half of all monitored BHUs did not have specially trained staff to treat TB patients, while around one-third lacked staff to run programmes such as Control of Diarrheal Disease (CDD) and Malaria Control Programs (MCP). The situation is worst in Balochistan, where 75% of the BHUs did not have trained staff to run the disease control programmes.

The report states that the lack of trained staff shows weak implementation of health policies and lack of informed government oversight.

The report, however, also maintained that a majority (around 95%) of the health units had staff to offer basic vaccination facilities under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation and to attend to female patients. Around 84% also offered advisory services to breast-feeding mothers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2012.