PESHAWAR: A hospital established by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in 2011 has been proving a blessing for the local women, especially belonging to the tribal districts, who are getting free services for complicated pregnancies and deliveries.

“We faced problems back home because there was no health facility to provide treatment to women to a desired level. We came to Peshawar with complicated delivery where my wife underwent a surgery and gave birth to a baby,” Sohail Khan, a teacher from Khyber tribal district, told Dawn.

He is happy over the treatment his wife at the MSF Women Hospital in Peshawar as both mother and baby are normal.

Khan is not the only beneficiary of the facility because it hospitalises 600 women with maternity issues per month and 93 per cent of them belong to target area, south and north of Peshawar, Khyber tribal district while the rest are from Peshawar city.

The facility offers free services for complicated pregnancies and deliveries

Dr O Zakary Rhissa, the project coordinator, told Dawn that they admitted 60 patients in the 12-bed wards for neonates and 70 women were operated upon per month including 93 per cent caesarian and seven per cent uterus manual exploration and repair.

He said that the patients had problems, such as stillbirth, caesarian, delivery complications, premature babies (neonatal care) and low birth weight with the help of 219 staffers.

To inform the people about the free services at the hospital, he said, two outreach team of four persons each were deployed in the communities apart from enlisting support of more than 46 basic health units from where the patients were referred.

“We have referral system in place to receive all the complicated cases from all the target area. Transportation cost is reimbursed to the family according to the distance,” said Dr Rhissa.

He said that presently they did not have any plan to set up such a facility in the tribal districts but they in collaboration with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department responded to emergency situations there. He said that 80 per cent of the admitted patients were critical and required emergency treatment.

“We don’t offer pre-natal services to the women but our partner BHUs receive women for the same in their respective areas and patients are referred to us for needful services,” said Dr Rhissa.

He said that the hospital offered Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) Services without charges. “We are open to all complicated cases and vulnerable population without access to CEmONC services anywhere in the province,” he added.

The project director said that the 42-bed hospital located in University Town area of Peshawar was registered with the Healthcare Commission and remained open round-the-clock.

“We take referrals from surrounding BHUs, erstwhile tribal districts and other hospitals,” he said. He added that the services addressed mainly complicated pregnancies and deliveries, referred from BHUs and other primary healthcare facilities cooperating with MSF.

“The patients also receive free food. The MSF-France has signed an agreement with the government under which we offer free-of-charge services 24 hours a day, seven days per week and by focusing on high risk pregnancies,” said Dr Rhissa.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2019