QUETTA: Balochistan's largest government-run hospital has only four functional incubators for under-weight and newly born children.

Bolan Medical Complex Hospital (BMCH) was provided 14 incubators few years back. “10 out of 14 incubators are out of order currently,” sources in BMCH told Dawn.com on Tuesday night.

Daily, dozens of newly born are being brought to BMCH for treatment. “Daily, we receive around 10 under-weight children,” a doctor in the hospital, who declined to be named due to fear of reprisal on the part of administration, told Dawn.com.

Balochistan stands first in terms of child mortality rate across the country.

Nadeem Shahid, a health advocacy expert told Dawn.com that 63 children out of 1,000 lose the battle for life within 28 eight days after birth.

Health officials also silently paint a bleak picture of the status of medical facilities in the province.

Balochistan government had allocated substantial amounts in provincial budget for education and health during the current year.

Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch says that promotion of health and education sectors was his government’s top priority. However, when it comes to ground realities, the masses are deprived of even basic health facilities.

Most of the under-weight children are being referred to private hospitals by BMCH administration. “They charge up to Rs4,000 for 24 hours,” Abdullah, who had admitted his under-weight child in a private hospital said.

Despite repeated tall claims, the BMCH administration and the health ministry was unable to ensure immediate repair of incubators.

“These incubators are lying out of order for years,” an employee of the BMCH said while pointing towards broken incubators in the hospital.

He said that the administration should provide at least 25 new incubators to the hospital to ensure provision of health facilities to the under-weight newly born.