ISLAMABAD, March 14: A survey conducted by an NGO showed a large number of health facilities in the country's rural areas lacked trained staff to deal with TB cases and operational delivery rooms and delivery kits.

The Fafen Health Institution Monitor, released here on Monday said that around 17 per cent of Rural Health Centers (RHC) monitored by Fafen during January 2011 did not have trained staff to attend to Tuberculosis patients. Similarly, around 19 per cent of them lack operational delivery rooms. There are no dental rooms, ophthalmology rooms, operation theatres for minor operations and laboratories in several RHCs. In addition to absence of trained lack to run TB, diarrhoea and malaria control programmes, deficiencies were seen with regard to basic equipment necessary for carrying out diagnosis and treatment. A significant number of RHCs also did not have Sui Gas and telephone line connections.

Fafen teams visited 72 RHCs in 61 districts nationwide during January 2011-- 38 RHCs in 28 districts of Punjab, 21 in 18 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight in nine districts of Sindh and five in six districts of Balochistan.

Pediatric and female reproductive health was observed to be in a state of neglect since 19 per cent of the monitored RHCs lacked operational delivery rooms.

Delivery kits were missing in 17 per cent of the RHCs monitored across the country. Likewise, 83 per cent of the RHCs did not provide food commodities to vulnerable groups, including lactating mothers and malnourished children.

Similarly, advisory services to breastfeeding mothers were not offered in 25 per cent of the RHCs.

Ophthalmology (eye) and dental rooms were missing in 86 per cent and 2 per cent of the RHCs, respectively, while operation theaters for minor operations were not present in 24 per cent of the RHCs. It was also observed that 14 per cent of the RHCs had no laboratory which meant that there was no place to carry out necessary medical tests in the RHCs, or of safely storing the results.

Thirty three per cent of the monitored RHCs did not have staff to run the Control of Diarrheal Diseases (CDD) program and 15 per cent lacked the required staff for Malaria Control Program (MCP). Equipment necessary for diagnosis and treatment like ECG machines, X-Ray machines, and oxygen tents were absent in 61 per cent, 39 per cent and 24 per cent of the 72 RHCs, respectively.

Furthermore, syringe cutters and sterilizers were absent in 18 per cent and 14 per cent monitored RHCs, indicating the possibility of re-use of syringes and use of unsterilised medical equipment. Although the monitored RHCs reported significant deficiencies, 93 per cent had a ward for inpatients and 85 per cent had X-Ray rooms.