PESHAWAR: Health facilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are overstretched due to the influx of patients from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

According to local doctors, Fata residents visit health facilities in the province due to a lack of infrastructure in their region.

They say Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has long been offering treatment and diagnostic facilities to patients from Fata though they are meant for its own people.

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The relevant officials said the centre directly governed Fata, so it was responsible for caring for the people of the rugged region.

They, however, said since Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had never taken up the matter with the federal government, it hadn’t secured any funds for the purpose.

Officials insist matter never taken up with centre for funds

“Things get complicated as the people of Fata live in the settled areas of the province in good numbers. From 40 to 50 per cent of beds in local hospitals are occupied by patients, who don’t live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” an official said.

The official said besides specialised treatment facilities, the Fata people also received vaccination as well as services offered by TB, HIV/Aids, maternal and child health and other healthcare programmes meant for population of the province.

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He said Fata with a five million population was a huge burden on the province’s healthcare system, which catered to local patients as well as those from Fata.

The official said the influx of Fata patients had overstrained health facilities mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Lakki Marwat and Peshawar districts, where most beds at the government hospital were occupied by them.

Fata-based doctors said in total, Fata had 839 healthcare centres, including six agency headquarters hospitals, but the local residents preferred to visit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the services offered to them in their region weren’t up to the mark.

They said an agency headquarters hospital would begin operations in Orakzai Agency next year.

According to doctors, 80 per cent of Fata health facilities have been in ruins for over a decade due to militancy but even before that, Fata people used to visit health facilities in the province.

They said unavailability of MRI, CT scan and other such facilities had forced Fata people to opt for the costly option of going to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the needful.

Also, the people of the rugged region are very vulnerable to diseases due to lack of development, low literacy and violence.

Doctors at the province’s local teaching hospitals complained the local health department didn’t have statistics of the Fata people treated at local facilities and that their repeated requests to the relevant authorities for taking note of the serious matter had fallen on deaf ears.

Officials at the health department said the matter had come to the limelight after the arrival of displaced people from North Waziristan Agency in large numbers.

They said the influx of tribesmen overstretched health system in the districts bordering their restive tribal area.

“The province’s health system has long been catering to Fata population. It’s the first time that the provincial government has realised that the (health) system is overburdened by it,” an official said.

The official said the province had around 1,700 health units, including 10 teaching and 25 district headquarters hospitals, which were well-equipped and had adequate staff to fulfil the needs of local population.

He, however, said the people other than the residents of the province, too, availed themselves of those health facilities to the suffering of local population.

The official said the centre had never given the province any grant for the treatment of Fata people at its facilities.

He said not only did Khyber Pakhtunkhwa offer treatment to Fata patients but it sent trained human resource to the mountainous region as well.

“Fata has got a secretariat and director-general (health services) but its top positions are filled by the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department through the provincial governor,” he said.

The official said those graduating from government medical colleges on the seats reserved for Fata students should be posted to region for benefiting local population and strengthening local health system.

He said every year, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa medical colleges admitted around 80 people on the seats reserved for Fata and such students were supposed to work in the region after graduation but most of them didn’t do so.

The official said the services of Fata doctors should be handed over to the Fata directorate of health services.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2015

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