CHITRAL: The primary healthcare system in Lower Chitral district is in a shambles due to acute shortage of doctors as only 20 medical officers are posted against 100 sanctioned posts for the last four years.

Confirming the situation, the district health officer, Dr Muhammad Shamim, told Dawn that all the nine basic health units, three rural health centres and 19 dispensaries, the primary healthcare facilities, are being run by paramedical staff.

He said that a category-D hospital at Drosh was located at a strategic place at the confluence of the Sheshi Koh, Damil, Ashrait, Jinjirait Koh and Arsoon valleys bordering Nooristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan and it daily received about 500 patients at its OPD with hundred per cent occupancy of its 43 beds.

“Despite its importance, the hospital faces shortage of doctors and specialists of various departments while the facility of Sehat Card is also unavailable here despite the fact that it is being run as a secondary healthcare hospital.

Strengthening the hospital to its full capacity by filling the 15 vacant posts of medical officers and 5 posts of specialists will significantly reduce the burden on the district headquarters hospital of Lower Chitral, which also covers Upper Chitral district as well,” he said.

Dr Shamim said that the unavailability of lady doctors in Drosh hospital had been a chronic issue as the local people always highlighted the issue through agitation, while a gynecologist was urgently required there as many women died on the way to the DHQ hospital for delivery.

He said that one of the viable solutions to settle the issue of the paucity of doctors and specialists was hiring their services on renewable contract basis by declaring the posts as Lower Chitral-specific and non-transferrable.

Regarding the physical infrastructure and diagnostic facilities at the hospitals of Lower Chitral including that of Drosh, he said that there was no issue at all while the paramedical staff was at its full sanctioned strength.

Despite the prevailing grim situation of doctors’ shortage in the healthcare facilities, the district of Lower Chitral stood first in performance throughout the province for the last three months consecutively and won the ‘award of the best performance’ from the provincial health authorities.

Dr Shamim said that the assessment of monthly performance was done on the basis of daily staff presence, availability of medicines, infrastructure maintenance, equipment functionality, cleanliness and response to various national health programmes while the index of the district exceeded 95 per cent each time.

He appreciated the high spirit of the paramedical and allied staff of health department.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2025