BAHAWALNAGAR: The lives of the 55 staffers of the Rural Health Centre of Mandi Sadiq Ganj providing health facilities to more than 90,000 people of 84 border-area villages are in grave danger as they are forced to use a dilapidated building.

The structure had been declared dangerous by the Buildings Department about 15 years ago, Dawn has learnt.

All the in-charges of the RHC during their tenures had sent proposals to the department for its maintenance and repair work, however, their requests remained unheard, RHC in-charge Dr Kafeel told Dawn.

The construction work of this building could not be started even when the proposal for the repair and maintenance had been approved and it was listed in the scheme No 1 and 2 of the department in the last fiscal year, he revealed.

The structure was officially declared dangerous 15 years ago

Dr Kafeel said the 55 staffers of the RHC, including four medical officers (MOs), a woman medical officer (WMO) and a dentist, were providing health facilities to hundreds of villagers in three shifts on a daily basis.

He said all of them were forced to use the building which had been declared dangerous about 15 years ago.

MO Dr Abdullah said the employees had been working in the far-flung area to serve the people but not to commit suicide. He said that seeing the condition of the building, it is feared that a major accident could happen any time.

The paramedical staff told Dawn that on July 16, the roof of the ECG room collapsed, destroying equipment, furniture and other material but luckily there were no casualties as the number of patients was low that day due to rain. They said the administration took no measures to resolve the issue despite the roof collapse incident.

Dr Lareb, the only WMO of the RHC, said she wanted to leave the station and could not stay at this dangerous place anymore.

Describing the delay in the construction of the RHC building as administrative neglect, scores of villagers on Thursday also registered their protest outside the building. They demanded that the secretary health shift the building to a safer place on an immediate basis.

The Bahawalnagar CEO health was not available for comment. Additional Deputy District Health Officer (ADDHO) Dr Waheed Afsar Bajwa told Dawn that the CEO had asked him to look into the matter. He said the equipment and the staffers were being shifted to a new building of a government school until the RHC building was properly repaired or a new building constructed.

While denying the claim of the ADDHO, the RHC in-charge said neither the RHC was being shifted to any government building nor had any such place been chosen yet.

When contacted again, Bajwa said the RHC had a five-acre land, out of which four kanal were covered area and some of it was in a better condition. He said now it had been decided to use the better part of the RHC building instead of shifting it somewhere else.

The paramedics claim that the entire building has been declared dangerous and it could collapse any moment.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2022