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| Female doctors needed at IDPs camps |
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Women avoid male doctors, experts fear outbreak of cholera
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Muhammad Qasim
Rawalpindi
Health experts busy in providing medical assistance to the internally displaced persons in Mardan, Swabi, Jalala, Katlang, Takhtbai, Lundkhwar, Rustam and other areas in NWFP revealed that the IDPs’ settled there need severely the services of female doctors.
“Also most of health experts here fear an outbreak of cholera because of poor sanitary conditions at the IDPs camps and settlements,” said Chairman Rawalpindi Medical College and Allied Hospitals task force on medical assistance to the IDPs in NWFP Dr Shafiq Sarwar while talking to ‘The News’ Friday adding there have not been
sufficient number of female doctors to cater to the needs of the IDPs.
Teams of Rawalpindi Medical College and allied hospitals in Rawalpindi comprising four to five female doctors, three male doctors and two paramedics along with significant quantity of medicines visit the IDPs settlements in NWFP daily. “We are providing healthcare services to IDPs mostly settled in ‘hujras’, houses and schools in Jalala, Lundkhwar, Rustam and Takhtbai areas these days,” he said.
To a query, he said that the medical teams planning to help IDPs in NWFP should be aware of the fact that there is a dire need of female health professionals. “It is important that the said areas have D grade hospitals equivalent to tehsil level hospitals in Punjab but these hospitals had already been lacking severely services of female doctors. Healthcare facilities in Jalala, Lundkhwar and Rustam did not have any female doctor whereas only one lady doctor has been serving in Katlang hospital for the last 18 years,” he said.
Takhtbai and Jalala are not more than 15 kilometres from Mardan, the district from where the NWFP chief minister belongs. “Mardan and adjoining areas have a complete infrastructure for medical relief however the healthcare facilities here lack doctors and paramedical staff,” said Dr Shafiq.
Dr Shafiq who is also member of the task force framed by the Punjab government for provision of healthcare services to the IDPs in NWFP said that the medical teams from Punjab have established their head office at Mardan Medical Complex that had not been made operational as a hospital by the NWFP government.
“We send ten teams of doctors and paramedics to 10 different IDPs settlements and at an average, the teams provide medical assistance to more than 3,000 patients daily,” he said.
He added that more than 90 per cent female patients at the IDPs settlements avoid examination by male doctors. “We can not convince them, the female IDPs, to get examined by male doctors. The only thing we can do is to arrange female doctors for them.”
Talking on trend of diseases in the IDPs camps and settlements, he said the most commonly found disease include respiratory tract infections, gastrointestinal problems, skin infections including scabies and fungal infections while most of the IDPs are suffering from depression and psychological trauma.
“Poor sanitary conditions might cause a cholera outbreak in the camps and other settlements in ‘hujras’ and schools if preventive measures are not adopted in time,” he said.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
