RAWALPINDI: Only three of the seven dispensaries established in Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) are functional while the remaining are without doctors and paramedical staff.

These dispensaries are located in the constituency of Federal Minister for National Health Services Aamir Mehmood Kiani.

The buildings of the seven dispensaries were completed in 2017 but the appointment of doctors, paramedical staff and purchase of equipment are yet to be made.

The Punjab government constructed the buildings at a cost of Rs70 million and the funds were provided to former MNA Malik Abrar Ahmed.

These dispensaries are located at Tench Bhatta, Chur Chowk, Misrial Road, Dhoke Gujran, Ahmedabad, Azam Colony and Siam. The dispensaries at Tench Bhatta, Chur Chowk and Siam are functional while the buildings of the remaining four remain un-utilised.A senior official of the RCB told Dawn that earlier electricity was not provided to the dispensaries but last year the buildings got electricity and gas connections and were handed over to the RCB to make them functional.

He said the RCB took possession of the buildings but failed to appoint doctors and paramedical staff as well as purchase equipment and medicines.

“The civic body spent all its available funds on the upgradation of the Cantonment General Hospital (CGH) and left the dispensaries unattended,” he said.

Under the programme to upgrade the CGH launched by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, all the dispensaries were to be attached to the hospital. However, he said, after the change of government in August the civic body stopped the work.

Another official of the RCB said that strangely all the dispensary buildings were constructed in and around Peshawar Road such as Chur Chowk, Siam, Misrial Road and Dhoke Gujran.

“The RCB has 10 wards and the dispensaries should have been constructed in each of the wards to facilitate the residents,” he said, adding there was a need to establish more than two mother and child care dispensaries in the thickly-populated areas of Tench Bhatta, Dhoke Syedan and People’s Colony.

The cantonment areas have limited healthcare facilities and the residents have to go to government hospitals such as Holy Family Hospital in Satellite Town, Benazir Bhutto Hospital on Murree Road and District Headquarters Hospital in Raja Bazaar.

But these three hospitals witness rush as more than 2,000 to 3,000 patients daily visit each of them.

If the dispensaries are made functional, the patient burden on the hospitals would reduce as the residents would prefer visiting the dispensaries in their localities for the treatment of minor ailments.

When contacted, RCB spokesman Qaiser Mehmood admitted that only a few dispensaries were functional while work had been launched to make two more dispensaries functional within a month.

He said he was not aware about the hiring of doctors and paramedical staff as well as provision of medicines and equipment to the dispensaries.

However, a senior official added that the cash-starved civic body was trying to arrange funds to make all the dispensaries functional as per the policy of the Military Lands and Cantonments Department.

He said there was no medical college to run the affairs of the CGH and dispensaries.

“The cantonment authorities wanted to construct a medical college near Ayub Park but the land was disputed between the Chaklala Cantonment Board and Fauji Foundation so work could not be launched,” he said.

If the medical college is established in the cantonment area, the RCB would be able to send doctors and paramedical staff to the dispensaries, said the official.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2018