PESHAWAR: The provincial health department has started posting of doctors in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas as part of the plan of its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The first order in this regard was issued by the health secretary on September 13 through which Dr Adnan Khan was transferred from Maulvi Ameer Shah Memorial Hospital Peshawar and posted agency surgeon of Khyber tribal district.

It is the first-ever transfer by health department directly to the tribal district following a notification of Fata’s merger with the province in the line with 25the Constitution Amendment by National Assembly and subsequent gazette notification by the government on June 4.

Officials said that health department was facing problems in implementation of the merger plan as the directorate of health of former Fata was unwilling to become part of the province.

Dr Adnan Khan transferred from Peshawar to Khyber

“More transfers and postings are in pipeline due to the strict directives by the federal government to ensure the merger of erstwhile tribal areas with KP,” they said.

On June 28, the health department issued a letter to Fata health authorities that they were no longer an independent entity after the passage of the amendment by the government and asked them to attend a meeting on July 2 to discuss the situation with regard to implementation of the law.

The letter said that seven agencies previously part of the Fata should be integrated with the province but the high-ups of directorate of health Fata escaped the meeting much to the embracement of the top provincial health officials.

They had been asked not to order postings and transfers of the staffers working in tribal districts as they weren’t authorised to do so after the merger of tribal areas with the province, they said.

They said that reminders to Fata health authorities to sit with KP health department and deliberate on future plan regarding their staff, infrastructure and resources etc did not find receptive ears that also infuriated the top officials.

“KP top officials want the provincial health department to take control of Fata health as soon as possible,” said officials. They said that health department was under tremendous pressure to stat activities in tribal districts with regard to immunisation, anti-dengue fever campaign, anti-measles drive and mother and child programme because of poor health indicators there.

They said that provincial government was directed by the centre to take measures for implementation of the health programmes in tribal districts because it had a good infrastructure. They added that despite existence of health facilities and staff in tribal districts, more patients were brought to KP’s hospitals for treatment.

“There is not a single nursery unit in the entire erstwhile Fata due to which newborns suffer for want of treatment,” they said.

Officials said that there were 979 health facilities in the tribal districts. The area has 8,796 health employees including 108 posts of specialist doctors but 84 of those are vacant. Fifty posts of women medical officers and about 200 of lady health workers and nurses are also unfilled in the tribal districts.

Officials said that after merger of Fata with the province, the number of districts in KP would reach 32. All districts would come under the health department where a monitoring a devaluation system exists.

Officials said that they had started intervention on the government’s directives and KP director-general health services had been asked to ensure that merger plan took shape as early as possible.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2018