SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: The district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in Wana, the only major healthcare facility serving the 1.2 million population of Lower South Waziristan and Upper South Waziristan, has been facing financial crunch for the past nine months, with staff left unpaid and essential medicines no longer available.

The situation has caused immense hardship for patients, while staff members warn of possible protests if the issue remained unresolved.

Jan Muhammad, the health manager and medical superintendent of DHQ hospital Wana, told Dawn on Wednesday that employees have not received their salaries for nine months. He said the Medical Emergency Resilience Foundation (MERF) had been covering salaries from its own resources, but this arrangement had become unsustainable.

According to him, the hospital’s total liabilities under the Health Foundation have now reached Rs420 million.

MS Jan Muhammad said the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Health Foundation had failed to release funds or salaries during this period, pushing the entire workforce into severe financial distress. “If this continues, staff will have no choice but to stage protests, which will only worsen the plight of patients,” he cautioned.

The DHQ hospital employees accused the government of indifference, saying their daily lives had become unbearable. They urged the provincial government to immediately release funds, not only to clear their outstanding salaries but also to restore basic facilities for patients.

The patients and their attendants also voiced grave concern over the worsening situation. They said the lack of funds had severely disrupted the supply of medicines and other essentials at the hospital, forcing many to seek treatment at private facilities or travel to distant cities for the purpose. They appealed to the provincial government and the chief secretary to take urgent notice of the matter and order the immediate release of Rs420 million in pending funds.

Local social and civil society representatives described the crisis as a grave injustice to the people of the region. They noted that the DHQ hospital in Wana was the sole major public health facility for both Lower South Waziristan and Upper South Waziristan, two of the province’s most underdeveloped districts. “The delay in releasing funds is unacceptable. The government must treat this matter as a top priority to ensure that local communities continue to receive basic healthcare,” they stressed.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2025