Acute shortage of female doctors in Punjab’s primary health facilities
Lahore: Primary healthcare centres in Punjab are short of female doctors and gynecology emergency services but the most glaring issue that came up in a survey of healthcare facilities in the province was absence of clean drinking water.
Sangat Development Foundation (SDF) that conducted research in seven districts of Punjab shared its findings with the media in a press conference here. The Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) undertook an action research under its Women’s Enjoyment of Rights, Empowerment and Leadership programme (We’re Leaders) through trained citizen groups in 20 districts of the country – seven in Punjab, six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four in Sindh, and three in Balochistan. Sangat is partner of TDEA in Punjab.
The report says 10 out of 57 Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Rural Health Centres (RHCs) did not have a female doctor while 16 out of 57 of them lacked gynecology emergency services. Clean drinking water was unavailable in 49 out of 57 the healthcare centres. Security seems to be men’s business in primary healthcare centres as no female security staff was deployed at 51 out of 57 healthcare centres. One washroom for all was also seen.
Trained citizen groups named Hum Awaz (a forum comprising 20-25 active citizens in each district) visited 230 primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities, including Basic Health Units (BHUs), Rural Health Centres (RHCs), district headquarters (DHQ) hospitals, tehsil headquarters (THQs) hospitals and teaching hospitals to observe their gender responsiveness. The citizen groups employed a uniform methodology to report their observations using a standardised checklist.
As many as 74 healthcare centres in the seven districts, i.e, Lahore, Rahimyar Khan, Gujrat, Sialkot, Okara, Muzaffargarh and Sheikhupura were: 44 BHUs, 13 RHCs, 12 DHQ/THQ hospitals, two other secondary care hospitals and three tertiary care hospitals. Tertiary and secondary care hospitals were found better off as proper and accessible roads lead towards all of them. They have better structures in place with sheltered waiting areas and washrooms; still three out of 17 surveyed hospitals were found lacking clean drinking water. Here the problem was in pharmacies as seven out of 17 hospitals did not have the medicines being prescribed by the doctors at those hospitals. Also, six out of 17 secondary care hospitals did not have gynecology emergency services. In two hospitals there wasn’t any female staff available for labour rooms at the time of observation. A harassment incident with a female staff was also reported in one hospital.
Some of the suggestions of Sangat for gender equitable healthcare facilities are: to ensure availability of female doctors and nurses at the facilities, provision of separate toilets and dedicated waiting areas and wards for women across the province. Provision of clean drinking water at all health facilities was underlined as an urgent need. Another suggestion is providing female doctors and paramedic staff with separate living spaces.
