While the former provincial government claims that significant improvements have been made in district hospitals across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), a large influx of patients forced to travel to Peshawar for treatment, unravels a starkly different reality.
According to sources privy to the matter, a majority of the District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQs) and Basic Health Units (BHUs) located in various small towns in K-P, direly lack both the necessary medical facilities and the personnel crucial to the provision of healthcare services to the area’s population. Consequently, the populace of these towns has to turn instead to hospitals in the provincial capital.
“I have travelled five hours with my elderly father to seek treatment at the Khyber Teaching Hospital since the DHQ and BHU in our locality lack even the most basic medical and diagnostic facilities,” lamented Arshad Hussain, who had undertaken the nearly four hour journey from Kurram to Peshawar.
The Express Tribune also learnt that the unavailability and non-functionality of essential radiology machinery like the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computerised Axial Tomography (CAT) scan and ultrasound, is a major reason behind a large number of patients from remote areas travelling to Peshawar’s hospitals for diagnosis and treatment.
Furthermore, sources also revealed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had in the past initiated a public private partnership by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with private companies, allowing them to install their diagnostic machinery in the district hospitals - however, much of this machinery has now become obsolete since very few maintenance checks were performed to sustain their proper functionality.
Resentful of having to travel long hours to get simple diagnostic tests performed, many citizens poured their hearts out while speaking to The Express Tribune. One such citizen was Najib Ullah Khan, a local from Upper Dir, who had travelled six long hours to chaperone his elder brother for his treatment at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.
“The government makes big promises of upgrading medical facilities and increasing the number of doctors in district hospitals just to garner votes in elections. If real improvement had been made in our district healthcare system, we would not be travelling half a day just to get a simple diagnosis,” resented Khan.
Agreeing with Khan, an official at the provincial Health Department confirmed, under the condition of anonymity, the deplorable state of affairs in the district hospitals; adding that the difference between the PTI government’s claims of improvement in healthcare during the election campaign and the on-ground reality in the following months, was huge.
When asked about the paucity of medical facilities facing the populace of far flung areas, Advisor on Health to the caretaker Chief Minister of K-P, Dr Abid Jameel, replied: “We are carrying an official inquiry to unravel any corruption in the government bodies which would have allowed such a gap to arise between the former government’s healthcare agendas and outcomes. Simultaneously, we are also working towards upgrading the medical facilities in smaller districts so that the burden on Peshawar’s hospitals may be relieved.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2023.
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