Balochistan: Ghost hospitals illustrate callousness of public health system

Citing a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, a Paris-based NGO — Baloch Voice Association — has raised serious concerns over deteriorating health facilities in Balochistan.

Munir Mengal, the NGO’s president, expressed concerns over the public health system in Balochistan on Twitter.

“As per World Health Organization (WHO) Report on Balochistan has claimed more than 250 ghost hospitals only papers. It was revealed that 257 health centres exist only in files, 656 health centres are partially functioning and out of 1661 health facilities half are closed,” Mengal tweeted.

“In Balochistan, 250 government ghost hospitals have been revealed which exist only on paper, not a single brick has been laid on the ground. In Balochistan, there are 1,661 hospitals, primary health centres, and rural health centres in the official documents of the health depart,” he added.

He also emphasised that 250 medical centres were not built but were limited only to papers causing severe problems for the patients.

“Interestingly, 250 medical centres have not been built but are only limited to papers, while 656 medical centres are in which the facilities are only nominal and the patients are facing serious problems,” his tweet concluded.

This is not the only problem being faced by Balochistan. The province earlier saw a shortage of medical supplies.

The Leishmania epidemic, which spread in one of the districts of Pakistan’s Balochistan, went out of control and affected poor people of different ages in the region.
Due to the sudden increase in the number of affected victims, the medicine and injection supplies kept with the local hospitals fell short.

According to Dr Nasrullah, health officer of Kalat district, more than 600 Leishmania patients were registered. He further said that since the number of affected individuals was quite high, the quantity of medical supply provided by the government was insufficient. They even made an appeal to the Health Department and government in this regard but did not receive any response.

He even warned the government that if the disease is not controlled timely, it is liable to spread to other regions as well. The rapid spread of this sand fly-borne disease can be attributed to the last year’s flood situation.

After failing to anticipate the situation beforehand after the floods, the government went on the back foot and asked for help from international organizations like WHO and UNICEF. A free ration camp was organized by the Al-Khidmat Foundation (affiliated to Jamaat-e-Islami and JuD) in the port city of Gwadar, Balochistan which was just another photo ops session by the administration and the NGO wherein 500 needy people who were selected to receive the ration package were asked to leave the package and return home empty-handed after the photo session was over.

According to locals, they felt very disrespected and mocked by the administration.

(With inputs from ANI)

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