MNA says Chitral hospitals lack medicines, staff

PESHAWAR: Member National Assembly (MNA) Shahzada Iftikharuddin on Tuesday asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and health minister to take steps on emergency basis for the provision of medicines and other facilities to all major hospitals in Chitral district.

“No medicines are available at Booni, Drosh, Garum Chashma and even in the District Headquarters Hospital Chitral,” the MNA told a group of reporters here.The MNA said he tried his best to bring the matter into the notice of the KP Health Minister Shahram Tarakai through telephone but failed to contact him.

He said the situation in Drosh hospital was alarming. “The patients from far-off areas reach the hospital covering hundreds of kilometers distance on foot due to blockade of roads caused by floods,” the MNA said, adding, “Their agonies at the hospital multiply due to non-availability of medicines as well as the doctors.”

The lawmaker from Chitral said the chief minister had announced to upgrade the hospital to category-C but the order was yet to be implemented.“The hospital is short of five to seven doctors at the moment,” Shahzada Iftikhar maintained.

A Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senator Samina Abid had also expressed concern over the pathetic situation at the DHQ hospital during her recent visit.The MNA appealed to the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Health Minister Shahram Tarakai to release medicines to the hospitals in the flood-hit district on emergency basis to cope with the situation.