close
Tuesday March 19, 2024

‘BHUs asked 51pc patients to buy medicines’

By our correspondents
May 24, 2017

LAHORE

The health service providers at the Basic Health Units (BHUs) of five districts of Punjab asked overall 51 percent of the patients visiting the facilities during the first quarter of this year to purchase medicines from the market.

This inference was derived after 611 interviews of patients visiting 126 BHUs of five districts, Lahore, Sahiwal, Bhakkar, Layyah and Muzaffargarh, during January to March 2017. As many as 52 percent patients at BHUs in Lahore, 38 pc in Sahiwal, 59 pc in Bhakkar, 53 pc in Layyah and 51 pc patients at BHUs of Muzaffargarh complained that they were asked by the healthcare providers to purchase medicines from the market.

It was one of the several complaints raised during a citizens’ feedback exercise regarding performance of BHUs in the five districts conducted by Empowerment Voice and Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition, which was presented during a Provincial Advocacy Forum (PAF) held here at a local hotel on Tuesday. 

Provincial parliamentarians, religious leaders, government officials, civil society members, women groups, representatives of UN organiations, local government representatives and media representatives attended the meeting. Speaking at the forum, Dr Nausheen Hamid, MPA and member of Women Caucus, said, "We have achieved a milestone in establishing breastfeeding rules and now those are in implementation phase." She emphasised the need for community to act as a watchdog to implement the rules. She also said that the manufacturers of dried milk for babies were bound to print on their product packs that this was not substitute to mother’s milk.  Dr Najma Afzal, MPA, said that 48,000 community LHWs should be trained to create awareness about breastfeeding and nutrition. She stressed on the policy makers that while establishing health policy they should keep in view Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Health Additional Director General Dr Akhtar Rasheed praised the role of District Advocacy Forum which had helped the government improve service delivery and provide better health facilities to the downtrodden of Punjab. He said the Punjab government had established 1,103 BHUs and employed 803 health officials to facilitate the women of poor areas in their delivery. He said that 722 nutrition centres were working in Punjab. "We have started screening of kids for malnutrition and we will register and provide them with international standard food", he said. He said that the government was allocating Rs 40,000 for the construction of separate toilet blocks in each BHU of Punjab. Another amount of Rs 500,000 is being allocated for the renovation of residences of lady health visitors in all the 24/7 and BHU-plus models, he added.

Ihtasham Akram, director, Advocacy and Accountability, said that that Provincial Advocacy Forum aimed to inform policy and decision makers about the issues of health service delivery that were raised by citizens and thus triggered debate for reforms and policy decisions. He said the issue of separate washrooms for women was raised 410 times in DAF meetings. He added that the District Advocacy Forums had brought under scrutiny the working of health officials which had enhanced the service delivery of health facilities.

vaccination: The measles prevention campaign has been started in Punjab, and three counters have been set up at Lahore General Hospital to vaccinate children to prevent them from the disease. The children aged six months to five years would be vaccinated free of cost till May 27. According to a press release issued here on Tuesday, Post Graduate Medical Institute and Lahore General Hospital (PGMI/LGH) Principal Prof Ghiyas un Nabi Tayyab visited the measles counters.