MITHI: Despite the frequent deaths of pregnant women and infants for the past many years in Thar region, the Sindh government functionaries have failed to sanction the required budgetary allocations for medicines for 200 health centres there, including 183 dispensaries, nine basic health centres, six rural health centres and two maternity homes of Tharparkar district.

The details gathered by this reporter from various sources on Wednesday revealed that despite declaration of emergency, the health department did not bother to sanction the required budget for the health units, which were otherwise shown running only on paper.

The finance department every year releases only Rs4.8 million for purchase of medicines for 21 health dispensaries set up in the district in 1992, but local health officials failed to get more funds for the past three years for the remaining 200 centres.

“The health department every month needs over Rs11m to run all the centres smoothly and cope with the alarming situation,” said a health official requesting not to be named. Due to unavailability of funds for 183 dispensaries, Tharis neither get any relief from the health units nor from the dispensaries put into operation in the remote area of the desert district.

Similarly, six rural health centres, nine basic health centres and two maternity homes have also not been getting the adequate funds for the purchase of drugs.

Credible sources in the health department told Dawn that the Sindh government released only Rs40m in 2014 after the media had raised the matter following deaths of hundreds of infants.

Then DHO Dr Arjan had purchased the medicines for 221 health units, but they ran out within a few weeks due to enormity of the situation.

Later on the Sindh government employed workers in the said units, but did not bother to allocate funds for procurement of medicines and other equipment.

In July 2017, the DHO of Thar wrote a letter to the finance department, a copy of which is available with Dawn, requesting them to release the required funds for the smooth running of all 200 units.

The rights activists and health experts working in Thar on health and nutrition issues, including Dr Shaikh Tanweer Ahmed, told this reporter that it was due to the alleged inaction of the department concerned that the Civil Hospital of Mithi was also in crisis due to the burden of patients from the entire district.

If the health units set up in the remote villages were not provided with the required medicines, situation in the coming harsh winter might get even worse in the desert region, he warned.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2017