Doctors warn of protests against poor health facilities

MULTAN: Doctors on Tuesday criticised alleged mismanagement of the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department which is destroying health infrastructure at lower level.

Talking to The News, the doctors on the condition of anonymity said that the poor system had created a mess at hospitals in rural areas. The Rural Health Centres were prime sufferers of this continuous departmental apathy, they said. They told that the doctors were working without consultation allowance and non-practicing allowances while rural health centres were running without funds. The doctors belonging to Multan, Tehsil Shujabad and Tehsil Jalalpur Pirwala said that they were serving at rural health centres where they were planning to stage protests against poor health facilities at the rural health centres. The Punjab government had allocated Rs 10.4 million for each RHC in the province but neither funds were released nor medicines were provided, they told. The machinery at the RHCs was lying out of order and dysfunctional, they lamented.

The unhygienic conditions at the RHCs were promoting hazardous environment and infection among patients and they were suffering into different diseases, they said. The doctors said that the conditions at labour rooms were very miserable. The Punjab government had promised releasing non-practicing allowance for doctors working at RHCs five months before but not a single doctor could receive the allowance, they informed.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association Multan chapter held a meeting at Shahbaz Sharif Hospital. PMA vice president Dr Murtaza Baloch chaired the meeting, which demanded Health CEO Dr Munawar Abbas delegating powers of all the six RHCs out of eight to SMOs instead of holding all the powers in his office. The health facilities were going down due to unavailability of equipment and surgery facilities, the meeting told. The PMA demanded the authorities take notice of the situation.

When The News tried to contact Health CEO Dr Munawar Abbas, he did not attend his phone even after sending text messages. His personal assistant said that the CEO was busy and could not talk.