THE Economic Survey has revealed terrible conditions in the health sector. With a total of 1,142 hospitals, 5,499 dispensaries, 5,438 Basic Health Units (BHUs) and 669 Rural Health Centres (RHCs), the government is claiming its historic success.

I am surprised to see these figures. If we assume that our population is 200m, it turns out one hospital for 175,131 persons and one dispensary for 36,370 persons.

Rural areas present a grimmer situation where over 70pc of our population lives, but the availability of just 669 health centres and 5,438 BHUs shows the government’s criminal negligence in the health sector. The total expenditure during fiscal year 2014-15 was shamefully as low as Rs114bn, which is 0.4pc of total GDP.

Contrary to this, a sum of Rs80 billion was wasted on the 24km-long track of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus service, while the Punjab government is planning to launch a metro train in Lahore.

On the other hand, there is only one cardiology hospital in Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura , Okara, Pakpatan and Sahiwal districts.

We have to travel for about five hours to reach the hospital.

The government should think about people, not about its vote bank.

Aftab Hussain Wahla

Okara

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2015

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