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| November 11, 2005 | Friday | Shawwal 8, 1426 |
Donors call for reforms in health sector
PESHAWAR, Nov 10: Inter-national donor organisations have asked the NWFP government to introduce reforms in the health sector so that quick rehabilitation of damaged health-care units be undertaken.
“We have conveyed this to the provincial government that we are not interested in reconstruction of the underutilised health care units in the earthquake-ravaged areas,” a representative of an international donor agency said.
According to him, a total of 232 health facilities had suffered damage, 169 partially and 63 completely, in the five quake-hit districts of Mansehra, Battagram, Abbottabad, Shangla and Kohistan, which needed an estimated amount of Rs5.5 billion to be reconstructed.
Another doctor working with an international donor organization, said that half of the health care units in the affected areas remained underutilised before earthquake. These facilities, he added recorded below 50 patients in the out- patients departments (OPDs), while the government spent huge amount on their maintenance.
“We are committed to restore health facilities but we are not willing to spend money on the units that remained underutilised,” he said, claiming that these facilities had been built on political basis.
An official of a UN agency said that they were willing to rebuild the basic health units (BHUs), but a single unit could be rebuilt for a population of 10,000 persons.
There are some BHUs, which cater the needs of population less than 2,500 people, he said, adding that the donor organisations want abolition of such units and transfer of their staff and assets to the nearest rural health centres (RHCs).
“Donors have also put the condition of reforms that included performance-based incentives to the staff,” said a UN official.
Representative of international agencies such as WHO, Unicef, UNFPA, Save the Children-US, Medicines Sans Frontier (MSF), International Federation of Red Cross, International Rescue Committee (IRC), International Medical Corps, Mercy Corps International, International Relief, International Organisation for Migration and others have focused their attention on the areas affected by the quake. But they feel uncomfortable with the provincial government’s response towards the rehabilitation of the destroyed health units. The government wants the reconstruction and rehabilitation of all the destroyed health units, but the donors want reforms before beginning rehabilitation work.
Christopher Blindness Mission has pledged to reconstruct a 230- bed District Headquarter Hospital (DHQ), Battagram and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has pledged to reconstruct DHQ Hospital Mansehra.
Save the Children-US is establishing 20-bed field hospital at Banna using Alaska in Battagram, while MSF is setting up 100- bed field hospital in the DHQ Mansehra. International Federal for Red Cross has already established a 200-bed field hospital in Ayub Teaching Hospital.
A UN official said that the objective of the long-term strategy was to re-establish district health system of earthquake affected districts on permanent basis through re-construction of health facilities, rehabilitation of health houses, reactivation of national programmes and systems, but “we want reforms first”.
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