Residents in Torghar demand basic health services

MANSEHRA: The residents of Torghar on Saturday demanded the Khyber Pakhtun­khwa government to develop healthcare infrastructure to provide basic healthcare services in the district.

“Our district is lacking healthcare infrastructure. Nine out of the 10 positions of doctors are vacant at the basic health units,” Shahna­az Khan, a resident, told reporters in the Dor Mera area.

Led by Shahnawaz Khan, a group of locals threatened to take to the streets in protest against the non-availability of healthcare services.

“In some cases, women die on the way to hospitals in Hazara division due to complicated labour, as not a single female doctor has been appointed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department throughout the district,” he added.

He added that residents had met with lawmakers and high-ranking officials from the Health Department to resolve the issues but to no avail. “This former tribal area was given the status of a settled district through a presidential order in 2011, but locals are still without healthcare services,” Khan said.

He said the work on the District Headquarters (DHQ) hospital was laid in 2016, however, but the Rs1 billion project was yet to be completed.

District Health Officer of Torghar Dr Mudassir said that nine basic health units were being run without doctors.

“We have 10 sanctioned positions for doctors, but nine of them are vacant. And not a single female doctor is on the Health Department payroll,” he revealed.

The DHO further stated that although the funds required for the completion of the DHQ hospital were recently revised from Rs500 million to Rs1 billion, only 50 percent of the work has so far been completed. 

“I have raised this issue with my department, but this project is part of the KP government’s annual development sch­eme,” Dr Mudassir said.