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| November 13, 2005 | Sunday | Shawwal 10, 1426 |
Health sector yet to draw firm assurance from donors
ABBOTTABAD, Nov 12: The NWFP health department’s bid to win support of foreign relief agencies in respect of running health care system in the earthquake affected areas fell short of yielding the desired results. None of the agencies has volunteered to accept the responsibility in Abbottabad, Bisham and Kohistan districts – the three of the five most affected districts of NWFP.
Other than the district headquarters hospital and a rural health centre the relief agencies did not show any interest during a meeting here on Wednesday, to extend support when the provincial health authorities persuaded them for taking over the task of reviving health care units on temporary basis.
International and local relief agencies have pledged to run temporary health facilities for six months to two years only in two districts of the province leaving the provincial government with a big challenge to restart health network in the Bisham, Kohistan and parts of Abbottabad districts badly affected by the last month’s earthquake.
The NWFP health department, which arranged a day-long workshop here on Wednesday to underline its medium-term plan for reviving health care network in the five districts, managed to win pledges only for two districts from some of the relief agencies which have set up temporary health facilities at Mansehra, Balakot, Garhi Habibullah and a couple of places at Battagram.
Saudi Red Crescent, Pakistan Red Crescent Society and International Federation of the Red Cross, Pakistan Medical Association (Karachi and Lahore branches) and representatives of several local non-governmental organizations assured the health authorities that they would continue their already established field hospitals from six months to two years.
Similarly, China and UAE would also continue their health facilities for six months to one year time and would leave behind most of their equipment at the time of their departure.
Representatives of some of the international donor agencies including the World Bank, UK’s department for International Development and senior officials of UN’s relief agencies attended the workshop.
The provincial health department informed the participants that Saudi Arabia had shown interest in rehabilitating the Mansehra district hospital.
Dr Aman of the health department said that negotiations between the KSA and the provincial government were going on. However, the provincial heath department’s bids to win assurances from international relief agencies, presently busy in relief activities for taking over the responsibility of running health facilities in all the five affected districts failed to yield the desired results as none of the relief agencies showed interest in accepting the job in Abbottabad, Bisham and Kohistan districts.
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