ISLAMABAD: Five Basic Health Units (BHUs) of the federal capital do not have a doctor available to treat the patients of rural areas. According to sources, at least 12 posts of doctors are vacant in 14 BHUs and three Rural Health Centres (RHCs) of Islamabad. There are no doctors appointed at BHUs located in five villages of Islamabad namely Shahdara, Tumair, Gagrai, Bimber Tarar, and Gokina Tarar affecting more than 100,000 people of rural areas.
A state of the art RHC built in Sihala with advance facilities like operation theatre, X-ray machine, ultrasound machines etc is manned only by one medical officer without any paramedical staff or even medicine for a population of around 50,000 people. A similar visit to Shah Allah Ditta BHU near Golra revealed that there is no medicine available for the patients while an assistant was treating patients instead of a doctor. Islamabad District Health Officer Dr Muhammad Najeeb Durrani admitted severe shortage of doctors in rural health facilities and blamed it on a ban imposed by the government on recruitments. “For the last seven years no new doctor has been hired for these BHUs owing to ban by the government. I have written several letters to my seniors in the Ministry of Interior about the shortage of doctors but they are also unable to help as the Establishment Division does not allow recruitments.”
He said the doctor appointed for Sihala RHC has not reported to duty for the last four months . The RHC in Bhara Kahu and Tarlai are fully functional with three doctors working in each centre.
Health experts believe that absence of basic health facilities is not only putting extra pressure on capital’s two government hospitals but also endangering the lives of people who need urgent medical care in their respective BHUs and RHCs.
Newly appointed Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Dr Tariq Fazal Chauhdry said he was aware of the lack of health facilities in Islamabad’s rural areas. “The population of Islamabad has increased with the passage of time but health care facilities had not been upgraded.”
The minister said the two larger hospitals of Islamabad PIMS and Polyclinic would be upgraded very soon to treat more patients. He said Polyclinic will be expanded within months as the CDA has given possession of 20-kanal area to the hospital where previously Argentina Park was built. He said the capacity of PIMS will also be increased while the government will try to send doctors of PIMS and Polyclinic at BHUs and RHCs in rotation to cater to their growing needs. “The BHUs and RHCs are not under my ministry as they come under the ICT Administration but we are working on a memorandum of understanding to allow for the posting of our doctors in these centre,” he said.
Dr Tariq said he has spoken to the prime minister about a proposal to set up a 300-bed general hospital in Islamabad to supplement the other government hospitals. He said PM’s Transformation Programme for education has already been kicked off with a huge budget amounting to Rs7 billion and a similar programme will soon be launched for the health sector.