MUZAFFARGARH, May 18: Among the many ills plaguing the District Headquarters Hospital, the most frequented health facility in any part of this province, is unavailability of nephrologists, paramedical and technical staff.
The hospital has been functioning without the key appointments of nephrologists and other staff for the last five years, it is learnt.
Worse still, the dialysis machine (besides other equipment) has been out of order for long. An estimated 800 patients visit the hospital daily; some 40 to 45 of them having renal problems are referred to the Nishter Hospital, Multan, according to Medical Superintendent Dr Mushtaq Azam.
Dr Sadiq Suhrani, the deputy district health officer, said the number of patients suffering from water-borne diseases multiplied in summer and they, too, are referred to Multan hospitals.
Only a victim can tell how difficult it is for a patient to travel to Multan from Muzaffargarh via Chenab bridge that is notorious for traffic jams. Many patients die in ambulances before reaching Multan hospitals. The district government purchased dialysis machinery worth millions five years ago, but absence of medical or technical staff to run it rendered it useless. The patients were referred to the Multan’s biggest health facility then and they are being shown the same route now.
Sources told Dawn that the machinery had developed fault because of being non-functional for five years. Interestingly, all PML-Q candidates during the last general election pledged to improve the hospital’s lot; each one claimed that it was his or her efforts which ensured installation of a dialysis machine in the hospital.
Equally deplorable is a lack of other facilities like generators, beds and absence of doctors and blood bank staff. Sources said the chief secretary’s visit to the district last week brought the medical superintendent and hospital staff on their heels. However, no public representative was allowed to register any complaint.
A majority of the doctors visit the hospital for only two hours. The previous government’s monitoring teams failed to make any impact on the hospital attendance. The doctors, who prefer to work privately, refer the visitors to the emergency ward to Multan health facilities. A non-technical person has been running the so-called blood bank for the last 10 years.
MS Dr Mushtaq said he had written a letter to the health higher-ups many times to fill the posts of doctors, train the existing staff and provide missing facilities, but all his efforts in this regard had proved futile.