People left to fend for themselves in Chitral

Via Dawn - CHITRAL, Nov 6: The President’s Programme for Healthcare Initiative (PPHI) launched in Chitral four years ago has failed to deliver the desired results in this remote and backward area, the locals complain. 

The programme was launched in fourteen other districts of the province to improve the deteriorating condition of the basic health units (BHUs) which had utterly failed due to paucity of funds and faltering administration. 

In Chitral, 22 BHUs were included in the programme which were being run without any doctors, medicines and test facilities. The people said that although the dilapidated buildings of the health units were repaired and new entrance gates erected to present a better look, but the state of facilities did not change a bit. 

Haji Khan, a social worker from Khot union council, lamented that non-availability of doctors was the biggest problem in the healthcare system and the problem remained unsolved because the programme failed to provide the BHUs with doctors. He said that to solve the problem, the PPHI offered a bizarre and impracticable solution and appointed one doctor for three or more BHUs where he was supposed to perform duty on rotation. 

He said that Chitral was area-wise the largest district of the province with sparse population and the distance between any two BHUs was in no case less than 25km. The doctor could not deliver satisfactory service anywhere while becoming a rolling stone.Safdar Shah, a resident of Mulkhow union council, said that a single doctor had been posted for the BHUs of Kosht, Warijun and Nishko which are situated such that the distance between two of them (Kosht and Nishko) was more than 40km. No official vehicle was available for the doctor and he had to shuttle between the BHUs on his own expense. 

Ghani Shah from Nishko village said that they were at the mercy of paramedics and the doctor visited the BHU only occasionally for a short period of time. The BHUs in the far-flung area are supposed to provide X-ray and diagnostic facilities of ordinary nature and the government has provided each centre with a generator and its operator, but these have been left to rust in the stores. 

A doctor, who wished not to be named, said that the BHUs across the district are like arteries which provide fresh blood to the human body and in the same way the BHUs must be properly equipped to provide maximum healthcare facilities. 

Giving the gory state of affairs in the remote areas of the district, he said that a poor man from Yarkhoon valley had to travel for two days to reach the DHQ hospital 200km away. He said that no meaningful healthcare was possible without a doctor.