A LARGE number of the rural healthcare centres in Zhob district are in a pitiable state. The people who visit these establishments discover that they are ill-equipped with hardly any facilities available to cater to the people’s needs.

The health department responsible for managing these RHCs finds it difficult to retain doctors at RHCs once they are posted there as they insist on being transferred to towns and cities.

The rural areas people state that nepotism by elected representatives and district administration officials is responsible for this state of affairs.

Besides the non-availability of physicians, there is endemic mismanagement in the distribution of equipment and medicines to rural health centres.

The RHC in Omza is the worst affected. This RHC is visited daily by hundreds of people as 13 villages are located in its vicinity, while Omza itself is a small town. Therefore this RHC has great importance but is faced by the problems stated above.

The health department and Balochistan government is requested to ensure that the issues faced by Omza RHC are resolved at the earliest.

Rafiullah Mandokhail
Zhob, Balochistan

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2020