Local residents are now turning to private clinics and hospitals for healthcare, after neglect on the part of the Punjab government has rendered union council dispensaries virtually unusable.

There are 22 dispensaries in Rawalpindi, but only four of these are in working condition. The rest are running without doctors and medications by dispensers.

At present, 99 staff members are available, five doctors are available for 22 dispensaries, and there are 123 vacancies of dispensers, lady health workers and paramedics.

Of the five doctors, former district coordination officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar Dall transferred Dr Mohammad Javed from the Akalgarh dispensary to the District Bar Room dispensary, leaving the former dispensary without a doctor for the last two years.

In light of the situation, local residents have stopped visiting the dispensary and are instead turning to private medical practitioners and hospitals for medical attention.

“The Punjab government claimed it would provide better healthcare to people at their doorsteps, but the ground reality is different. My wife was unwell, but dispensary employees refused to administer her treatment because no doctor was available,” said Mohammad Anwar, a resident of Mohanpura.

He said a decade ago the dispensary provided basic treatment to children who received minor injuries falling from the stairs or the roof. “Most people got treated for fever, or the flu or allergies at the dispensary with free medication,” he said.

Shahzad Tariq from Akalgarh said the residents never used to visit private hospitals or clinics for treatment for seasonal ailments, because doctors from the dispensary provided free medical care.

He said the provincial government had snatched the facility from the people. “We had to go to hospitals as far away as Satellite Town, Murree Road and Raja Bazaar to get medicine.”

A senior health department official told Dawn that in 2012, the Punjab government released Rs21 million to improve the condition of dispensaries in 10 UCs.

He said the health department had purchased X-ray and ultrasound machines, which are now stored away and unused. He said instead of carrying the project forward, the government had stopped the work.

PML-N leader and former MPA Shahryar Riaz told Dawn the project began in April 2012 but was still incomplete. He said he had written to the government but the requests had fallen on deaf ears.

PTI MPA Arif Abbasi said the PML-N government was not taking the health sector seriously, and was preoccupied with the metro bus and the construction of roads, which generate commissions.

“The Punjab government made tall claims to provide better health facilities in the province, but the prime minister went abroad to get medical treatment. It’s proven that they do not rely on the health facilities available in the country, and go abroad. For the average citizen, the health, education and water problems will remain and the elites will avail facilities on the taxpayers’ money,” he said.

The former president of PPP’s Rawalpindi chapter, Amir Fida Paracha, also said health and education were not a priority for the Punjab government.

“Hospitals and dispensaries in the province present a picture of neglect. PML-N only launched politically motivated development projects like the metro and roads, but the masses will remain deprived of basic facilities in the cities,” he said.

He remarked that, based on how the condition of hospitals and dispensaries in urban areas had deteriorated over the last eight years, one could imagine what the condition of rural health units must be like.

He added: “If the dispensaries were in working condition, the rush at government run hospitals would end as most people would visit their local dispensary for medical treatment.”

The executive district officer of health, Dr Arshad Ali Sabir, said 22 dispensaries in the urban areas and 44 in the rural areas came under the health department’s control in 2001, prior to which the district council and municipal corporation looked after their affairs.

He said that under the law, the health department was only responsible for the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, Rural Health Units and Basic Health Units.

“The Punjab government gave funds for the [aforementioned medical facilities] and stopped new recruitments for dispensaries,” he said.

“There is a proposal under the government’s consideration to convert dispensaries into filter clinics of teaching hospitals. Under this p0lan, dispensaries would be handed over to teaching hospitals who would appoint doctors and staff to run the outpatient department in the area, and doctors will refer complicated cases to the hospital while minor cases will be dealt with at the dispensary.”

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2016