SIALKOT: The building of Beeni Sulehriyaan Basic Health Unit (BHU) in Pasrur, which was declared dangerous three years ago, collapsed on Wednesday.

The rooftops and walls of the building collapsed in the morning when the facility was functional but luckily no one was injured, officials said.

The Health Department had declared the building dangerous three years ago after a survey by the Buildings Department.

The other BHUs declared unfit for usage in the survey are Lorhiki, Talhara, Ghueinki and Sehjokala (Daska tehsil), Randheer, Kotli Loharaan and Verowala Cheema (Sambrial tehsil), and Mehdipur and Sahowala (Pasrur tehsil).

The survey failed to awake the Health Department and no allocations were made for the dilapidated buildings.

District Health Officer Dr Javaid Warraich told reporters doctors and paramedics were now working in makeshift arrangements in the freezing cold weather.

He said the buildings of other BHUs declared dangerous were also a matter of time before they collapsed.

There are 88 BHUs in the district and each facility gets Rs1.5 million for medicine.

Dr Warraich said 30 BHUs were without medical officers and all the seven rural health centres (RHCs) had no women medical officers for evening shifts.

According to senior Health Department officials, every day 50 to 100 patients visit a BHU and the budget for medicine should be increased.

“Up to 1.5 million people visit a BHU in a year,” he said, which mean that only Re1 per patient is allocated by the department.

The people living in the rural areas face difficulties in getting medical and health facilities, especially emergency treatment, at BHUs and RHUs because of staff and medicine shortage, doctors say.

The Punjab government upgraded the Kotli Loharaan RHU to the tehsil headquarters hospital two years but its notification has yet to be issued.

Dr Warraich told reporters he had written to senior officials of buildings and health departments several time but no funds were allocated for repairing or reconstruction of BHUs.

SUSPENDED: Deputy Director of Colleges Malik Shamas raided Government Islamia Inter College of Mitraanwali and suspended from service Principal Prof Muhammad Zahid Farooq, Munawwar Saeed, Yasir Abbas, Muhammad Tahir, Abid Maseeh, Zaheer Abbas, Khawaja Jawad Haider and Yasir Shabbir for their absence from the college without any intimation.