PESHAWAR, July 7: The Agency Headquarters Hospital in the Mohmand tribal region has become dysfunctional as it has been without the required number of doctors, paramedical staff and other basic facilities, giving a lie to the claims made by successive governments about health delivery system in the tribal areas.
The 110-bed hospital in Ghalanai has been without orthopaedic surgeons, ENT surgeons, gynaecologists, dentists and paediatricians. Patients hardly visit this ‘C-category’ health facility.
Wards and out-patient department (OPD) of the hospital often wear a deserted look because of this state of affairs.
During a recent visit to the hospital this correspondent saw only three beds occupied. Doctors said that not a single surgery had been performed at the hospital in the past three months owing to non-availability of surgeons.
“If the hospital is without doctors, proper equipment, laboratory facilities and water, why will people bring patients here?” a doctor asked.
With a total area of 2,296 square kilometres, Mohmand Agency’s population is 334,453 according to the 1998 census. The headquarters hospital was established in the area in 1971 at a cost of millions of rupees to facilitate the local people.
Besides shortage of medical staff and other facilities, the hospital is facing acute shortage of water. A doctor said that the hospital got on an average 700 gallons of water per day. The hospital’s building is in a ramshackle state.Operation theatres in the hospital are located in unhygienic locations, not according to surgical guidelines.
Huge cracks are visible in doors of operation theatres’ building, making them entirely unfit for surgeries. The dismal state of affairs at the hospital has forced the people of the area to shift their patients to Peshawar even for treatment of minor diseases.
Agency Health Officer Dr Yousuf Shah said that the directorate of health, Fata, had deputed specialists in the hospital, but they left the hospital because of lack of accommodation and other facilities.
He said the NWFP governor had announced a special package to attract specialist doctors to tribal areas, but the response was very poor.
Like Mohmand, overall health scenario in other agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) is extremely pathetic, and access to health services is severely limited.
Official data shows that with a population of about five million the number specialist doctors in Fata is 66 with 182 nurses.
Despite allocation of over Rs555 million in the previous annual development programme all six headquarters hospitals in the tribal region are in tatters, short of medical staff, equipment and other facilities.
Officials said that absenteeism was one of the major factors which had marred health sector in Fata.
