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| October 26, 2001 | Friday | Shaba'an 8, 1422 |
Patients face hassle at Okara DHQ Hospital
By Muhammad Aslam Piracha
OKARA, Oct 25: The District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) has been functioning without required specialists, medicines and other basic facilities.
Established in 1981, it started looking after patients as a Tehsil Headquarters Hospital (THQ). However, with the elevation of Okara subdivision to district, the hospital was given the status of the DHQ Hospital in July 1982.
At present, the hospital is providing preventive and curative services and medico-legal to around 2.4 million people in the district.
Some 11 specialists are associated with the 125-bed hospital. Working as the first ‘Lever Care Facility’ and a referral hospital, it is also meant for training dispensers and staff nurses.
However, host of problems have marred the smooth functioning of the hospital.
There is no addition to the number of beds eversince its establishment which is insufficient to cater to the needs of enormous population.
Another 125-bed hospital has been under construction on the Okara-Deepalpur Road, some 4km towards the east of the DHQ Hospital, for the last five years. However, it still requires generous funds to be completed without further delay.
Allocation of budget for medicines is insufficient to meet the requirements of the people.
Posts of orthopaedic surgeon and gynaecologist are lying vacant in the hospital only to worsen the conditions of accidental cases and pregnant women. Likewise, there is no eye surgeon in the hospital.
What adds to the difficulties of the patients is the fact that newly-constructed emergency and outdoor blocks have started functioning but without additional medical and paramedical staff.
The units also require a provision of generator so as to avoid mess during power breakdown.
Lack of equipment in the cardiology unit, coronary care unit (CCU) and orthhopaedic departments is yet another curse to the patients.
Similarly, shortage of ECG equipment, apparatus for blood pressure, drip stands, bedsheets and bedside benches present a gloomy picture. At least two technicians must be inducted to run the equipment.
There is dire need for a registrar to manage things in the Neurosurgery department. The hospital also awaits induction of a medico-legal surgeon who should be equal to district physician or district surgeon in rank.
Medicines in the emergency unit have become a rare commodity. Patients are compelled to move to private laboratories in the absence of test care facilities.
Spreading over a vast area, the hospital needs an indoor telephone exchange to avoid inconvenience to the patients and functionaries.
Patients having skin diseases have been going through an ordeal in the absence of a dermatologist.
Conditions in other hospitals and health centres in the district are equally worse. There are only 33 doctors working with the Rural Health Centres (RHCs) and Basic Health Units (BHUs) against 144 posts for both male and female. The ailing people have to turn to the DHQ Hospital in the face of threats.
The people have urged district Nazim Syed Sajjad Haider Kirmani and district coordination officer Khalid Masood Chaudhry to take stock of the situation for the benefit of the patients.
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