PESHAWAR: The doctors have performed the first-ever caesarean section in the district headquarters hospital Dasu in Upper Kohistan district.

The local medics said that the district had several health facilities, which didn’t carry out surgeries but dealt with only minor health issues faced by the people.

The district headquarters hospital, built in 2020, remained unutilised till April 2022 when its control was given to a non-governmental organisation under the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

Doctors said that a woman was brought to the hospital in emergency on Monday in critical condition. They said that caesarean section was required to save the lives of mother and the would-be baby. “After obtaining consent from the relatives, we operated on her the very next day. Both the mother and baby are in good condition and would be sent to home within a day or two,” they added.

The doctors said that such a major surgery was performed for the first time in the history of Kohistan district. In the past, medical, surgical and paediatric specialties were non-existent in the district. “Now there are four specialists for provision of quality of clinical services to people. In the past, the patients were sent to Abbottabad and Mansehra,” they added. Now operation theatre, labour room, blood bank and emergency department have been established in the hospital.

Under Public-Private Partnership Act, 2016, the provincial government has established Health Foundation (HF) to contract out hospitals to private organisations and provide quality healthcare to people.

The Dasu hospital is being managed by National Integrated Development Agency (NIDA) under the control of health department.

Dr Adnan Taj, the managing director of Health Foundation, said that outsourcing of health facilities to private organisations was benefitting people in far-flung areas.

According to him, the foundation has contracted out 19 health outlets during the last five years in South Waziristan, Kohistan, Bajaur, North Waziristan, Kurram, Khyber, Orakzai and Chitral.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2022