PESHAWAR,  Feb  6: Allocation of inadequate funds have been affecting the performance of the district health facilities, doctors told Dawn here on Thursday.

“The total annual budget for the 105 health facilities in Peshawar district and Frontier Regions is only Rs50million, out of which Rs 4.3 million is consumed by salaries of staff, whereas the rest of the amount is too little to meet the expenses,” said an official at the executive district health  officer’s office.

According  to him, these health facilities,  including,  civil hospitals,  rural  health  centres  (RHCs),  basic  health  units (BHUs),  civil dispensaries and satellite hospitals had got the services of 19 senior medical officer, 87 medical officers,  four dental  surgeons,  besides about 1,300 auxiliary staff,  but  the patients visited quacks instead of these outlets.

Most of these facilities located elsewhere in the city, need repair work, for which the city government had pledged the allocation of Rs1.5million in two instalments. The amount would make little difference, as no repair work has been carried out from the past 10 years. The facilities needed white-wash, repair of broken boundary walls and roofs etc., in order to revamp them in the interest of the patients.

 All the facilities received a total budget of Rs10million for the medicines from the provincial government, which was reduced to Rs4.8million in 2002. Nevertheless, estimates suggest that about 600,000 patients are examined in these facilities per year.

Officials say that electricity at these health facilities is a big problem, as many of them remain without power supply for many days, which also badly disrupts the cold chain required for vaccines.  The official also said that they had to send the electricity bill for approval to the accountant general office. Meantime, the due date of depositing the bills gets expired.

This leads to disconnection of electricity at many of the health facilities.

About 30 dispensaries, BHUs and RHCs located in Garhi Tajak, Akhunabad, Chamkani, Urmar Payan, Adezai,  Hazarkhawni, Sarband etc.,  are  literally  in shambles and the patients visit the teaching hospitals for their minor problems. Doctors say  once   these healthcare facilities are improved, the patients would be facilitated locally and only those with serious problems would be referred to the tertiary care hospitals. Thus, the burden on the teaching hospitals would be reduced.

Not only the facilities need improvement but also the officers at the executive district health officer (EDHO), who are required to oversee the performance of the staff.

Doctors say that many a times, they spend the money from their own pockets on the maintenance of the vehicles, which was not reimbursed to them.

Similarly, the EDHO’s office has only one telephone, for which no  budget is allocated. The 105 health facilities  have no telephone connection. Recently, the EDHO’s office had moved a PC-1 to C&W department to revamp 50 per cent of the facilities.