SWA’s largest hospital sans female medics

Almost 61% of the posts at AHH, Wana remain vacant.

DI KHAN: South Waziristan Agency’s (SWA) largest medical facility, Agency Headquarters Hospital (AHH) in Wana is not staffed by a single female doctor. To top it off, almost 61% of the 57 posts of doctors remain vacant. The understaffed hospital is further plagued by ghost employees, a lack of essential equipment and medicine.

AHH Wana medical superintendent (MS) Dr Jahanzeb said the posts of gynaecologist, ultrasound specialist, ENT specialist, women medical officer, among several others, are vacant. He said only 22 doctors tend to the hundreds of patients who visit on a daily basis.



The MS said since the start of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, patients from the three sub-divisions of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) also head to AHH Wana for medical assistance. Even though some areas of NWA like Dossali are not directly in the eye of the storm but locals are forced to come to SWA for basic needs due to blockades along important land routes. “We have filed complaints with the bigwigs of health numerous times but to no heed,” added Jahanzeb.

“Due to a dearth of health facilities, clinics of quacks and ‘medical practitioners’ have sprung up across town,” said Amjad Ali, a local journalist while talking to The Express Tribune. Ali added numerous signboards of such ‘physicians’ can be found in Wana Bazaar. “Patients from areas like Shakai, Angor Adda, Azam Warsak, Toi Khulla, Kari Kot, Spin and suburbs of NWA are forced to go to these clinics,” he added.

“We came to AHH Wana all the way from Shakai but we will have to go elsewhere now,” said Shaukatullah Khan, a resident of Shakai who had arrived at the hospital with his family. Shaukatullah told The Express Tribune the medicine prescribed by doctors at the AAH is not even available at the hospital but is being sold in the market openly.

Promises and more

Former K-P governor Barrister Masood Kausar had announced plans to develop the facility into an ‘Category’ A hospital, with a budget of Rs250 million, during a jirga on December 18, 2012 in Wana.

Although the area has seen turbulent times in the past, the current law and order situation is relatively stable. Military action was never followed by measures addressing political and socio-economic development, causing a cascade of repercussions, including an inclination towards radicalisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2014.