MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has left the people of Mansehra at the mercy of private clinics and doctors as half of the sanctioned posts of doctors and specialists are lying vacant in the district for the last many years.

“Though we are trying to provide better health services to people, the district health department is not authorised to fill the vacant posts or appoint doctors,” said Dr Naeem Awan, the acting district health officer, Mansehra, when contracted on Saturday.

Date obtained by Dawn paints a grim picture of health department where even the posts of cardiologist and other specialist doctors are lying vacant.

There is only one post of cardiologist in the entire district at King Abdullah Teaching hospital (Kath) and that too is vacant.

Besides this, six more important posts in the specialised fields/departments are also vacant, but the provincial government is yet to start the process for filling these positions at Kath, which is supposed to provide health services to not only the people of Mansehra, but also to those from Kohistan, Torghar and Battagram districts.

The posts of radiologist, physiotherapist, anesthetists, gynaecologist, pathologist and medical specialist are lying vacant at Kath and patients are compelled to go to other parts of the country for treatment, mainly Islamabad and Peshawar.

Also, most of the rural health centres and civil hospitals in district are functioning without doctors.

According to official date, three of total 10 posts of senior medical officers in BPS-19 and 11 of the 18 posts of medical officers in BPS-18 have been lying vacant since long, leaving patients at the mercy of private clinics and hospitals. Also, only 20 medical officers of BPS-17 are working in local hospitals against 41 sanctioned posts.

People have been facing shortage of health services since 2005 when many hospitals and rural health centres were destroyed by earthquake.

NBC HOUSING PROJECT: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has constituted an 11-member committee to remove hurdles to the smooth execution of New Balakot City (NBC) housing project being developed to settle residents of earthquake red zone of Balakot. Ihsan Naveed, a central leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, told reporters on Saturday that PTI chairman Imran Khan and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak wanted early allotment of plots to the survivor families of Oct 2005 earthquake.

He said that the committee would negotiate with landowners and residents of Bakrial, the site for NBC. said he was optimistic that all hurdles to the NBC project would be removed soon.

Meanwhile, the rain that started on Thursday continued intermittently in upper parts of Hazara on Saturday.

Local people said that it was happening after several years that a long spell of rain was occurring in April and keeping the weather cold. Following the rain the temperature has dropped to 23 degrees Celsius from 35 degrees.