HYDERABAD: A large team of medical experts with 75 consultants of different faculties of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) and 140 MBBS graduates who arrived in Tharparkar on Wednesday to provide healthcare service to drought-hit population and conduct research on causes of malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality, was asked to leave on Thursday.

LUMHS Vice Chancellor Dr Noshad A. Shaikh who led the largest team ever to visit Thar was the first to leave for Karachi. He told the team members he had been called to the Chief Minister House, according to team members.

The team, besides providing healthcare facilities and conducting research, had raised funds from doctors and students which were used for purchasing medicines, food, ration bags, grocery, clothing and other items, which were left in Tharparkar for distribution, said a senior doctor.

The team had designed a questionnaire to conduct a scientific research on issues of malnutrition, maternal and infant mortalities.

The VC had led a team of deans of various faculties of LUMHS for a meeting with Sindh governor on Tuesday in Karachi and another meeting was to be held after the Thar visit. The VC was visiting Tharparkar along with his family members, said the doctor who wished not be named.

The professors on the team included; Roshan Aara Qazi, head of department of gynaecology, Dr Razia Abbasi, Dr Sajid a Yusufani, Dr Sohail Almani, Dr Aneela A. Rehman, Dr Bikha Ram, Dr Faisal Ghani Siddiqui, Dr Akbar Nizamani and others. The teams were dispatched to areas like Nagarparkar, Islamkot, Diplo, Chhachhro and Mithi with one professor of each faculty at least.

“He was to meet chief minister tonight,” said a professor quoting VC as having told him over phone after reaching Karachi.

VC was in Chhachhro’s rural health centre (RHC) along with other doctors when he got a message from someone asking him to immediately leave Chhachhro.

“Some policemen were there [RHC] until we left,” said a team member. He added that doctors were asked to vacate guesthouses in Mithi.

In other places mukhtiarkars either met focal persons or contacted them over phone, asking them to leave Thar immediately.

Visiting doctors were to have counseling sessions with women and expecting mothers about health, hygiene and issues relating reproductive complications, considering rising number of newborns’ deaths.

Tharparkar is witnessing a drought for the last three years as the area did not get required rainfall, triggering large scale migration of population.

Deaths of newborns because of malnutrition are routinely reported from Thar.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2014