Doctors in Swabi demand accommodation

SWABI: Doctors in the Kalu Khan Hospital and other basic health units (BHUs) have demanded the government to provide them accommodation so that they can perform their duty properly.

The doctors and paramedical staff told a group of journalists that they were facing severe accommodation problem. Kalu Khan Hospital is the Tehsil Razaar's headquarters hospital. "Due to non-availability of accommodation for the doctors, the patients also suffer," said one of the doctors on condition of anonymity. He added that one post of doctors and two vacancies of paramedical staff have been lying vacant for the last several months.

Situated at an edge of Swabi-Mardan road, the hospital was upgraded into category-D hospital by Awami National Party (ANP) government of the past. Spreading over 11 kanals area, it is located in the constituency wherefrom provincial Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai was elected in the 2013 elections.

"The health minister Shahram Khan Tarakai who won from the area failed to resolve the doctors' accommodation problem," said one of the staff members. The hospital caters to the people of entire Razaar tehsil. Dr Asghar Khan, medical superintendent of the hospital, said that in the tehsil headquarters hospital, there was no house for the 17 doctors and only four small houses for the paramedical staff.

Similarly, accommodation is also not available to the doctors in Yar Hussain Rural Health Centre and the doctors and paramedical staff have been forced to live in rented houses in the district headquarters or elsewhere.