SHANGLA: People here have demanded of the government to establish a trauma centre in one of major hospitals in Shangla to treat critical patients from accidents locally instead of taking them to hospitals in other districts.

The demand was made after the suspension bridge collapse incident on Friday in which eight people died and five others were injured. Initially, four people died on the spot and four others later succumbed to injuries that people attributed to unavailability of trauma centre and other life-saving facilities in the tehsil headquarters hospital, Bisham.

They said that all districts of the province had the trauma centre, but Shangla people had been kept deprived of this facility and in case of emergency they faced severe problems.

People say injured from accidents often die on way to hospitals in other districts

Dr Mumtaz Ali said that trauma centre was discussed among other issues two years ago at a seminar here where the public representatives committed to resolve the issues, but to no avail.

“We have referred the injured to other hospitals due to lack of MRI, CT scan, orthopaedic specialty, operation theatre, equipments, ICU in the major hospitals of Shangla,” said Dr Sanaullah of Bisham THQ hospital. He said that besides this there was no electricity, emergency ward, water supply, X-ray material, etc because of which they were unable to run the hospital smoothly.

The residents said that Shangla was a remote mountainous area where many people had been killed in traffic accidents, mainly due to lack of proper treatment facilities in the local hospitals.

He said that the provincial government should appoint specialist doctors and provide facilities of operations in the hospitals so that emergency cases could be handled and precious lives saved.

The residents demanded of the government to establish the trauma centre and operation theaters in major hospitals of the district.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has taken notice of the bridge collapse incident.

Special assistant to chief minister, Abdul Munim, and deputy commissioner Abdul Kabir on Saturday visited the houses of the deceased and offered their condolences over the loss of lives in the tragic incident.

They also visited the scene of the incident where Mr Munim asked the DC to submit a report of the incident within 15 days to the provincial government.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2017