KARACHI, April 8: Two years back in 2005, the government had decided to reactivate basic healthcare structure throughout the country and set a deadline of June 2007; however, till now there is no or very less progress made in this regard and according to the government sources in Sindh alone more than 250 Basic Health Units (BHUs) are non-functional.

According to details, President Musharraf in September 2005 in a meeting at Rawalpindi approved a 'national strategy' to revamp primary healthcare system and provide basic health facilities to the people at the grassroots level throughout the country by June 2007.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also attended the meeting, which finalised a coordinated mechanism to rehabilitate and reactivate all 5,000 basic health units across the country and equip them with doctors, medicines and auxiliary staff.

Speaking on the occasion, President Musharraf underlined that coordinated and efficient implementation of the strategy was imperative to bring about desirable qualitative change in the life of people.

It was decided that the federal government would extend one-time financial assistance of around Rs800 million for the implementation of the strategy including reactivation of the BHUs, capacity building and organisational structure through provincial support units and district support units.

It was also decided that the entire programme would be overseen by a national steering committee with the president and the prime minister in the chair and the ministry of industries and special initiatives as the focal point. Under the strategy, similar provincial steering committees will also be formed for efficient implementation of the programme. Concurrently, the district health administration will be revamped and converted into District Health Management System, which will have the required managerial and professional capabilities to manage the rehabilitated BHUs beyond 2007. In the interim period, these BHUs will be managed by the provincial rural support programme through the district support units.

However, despite the passage of two years there seemed no change, especially in Sindh, when the deadline of June 2007 is just two months away.

On Saturday, the Director-General of Sindh Health Department, Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi, speaking at a reception in the honour of a delegation of the Punjab health department at the Taluka Headquarters Hospital Shahdadpur, said that as many as 265 BHUs in Sindh were non-functional, as they were illegally occupied by local landlords, who had converted them into their guest houses or warehouses.

He further revealed that since last nine months no budget was released for purchase of drugs for TB, as well as, life saving medicines.—PPI