THATTA: The 26 mobile hospitals meant to provide free diagnostic and treatment facilities as well as medicines to patients within their area of residence in 12 districts have almost stopped serving the purpose, according to complainants from many districts including Thatta, Sujawal and Badin.

Civil society activists and members of the general public have constantly been approaching media personnel in their respective districts to ascertain as to why these mobile hospitals are unable to provide health services despite provision of funds. They, speaking to this reporter, said that the complaints being made to relevant authorities were piling up but no corrective action was being taken. They called for making these hospitals fully functional to ensure provision of relief to people of rural areas, particularly the poor and downtrodden.

Sources told Dawn that the project was launched under former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s vision in 2016 during the tenure of the then Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah. It was titled: ‘Mobile Diagnostic and Emergency Healthcare Services (MD&EHS). The operation was initiated from Tharparkar district and later on extended to eleven other districts. A private party was engaged to manage and run the hospitals while the Sindh government has been providing it an annual budget of Rs54.88 million.

Each of these mobile hospitals is equipped with a mammography unit as well as X-ray, ultrasound and ECG unit, incubators and a lab. Each one has a power generator mounted on it.

Medicines for emergency and normal treatment are also at the disposal of the doctors and paramedical staff posted on the mobile hospitals.

The mobile hospitals are supposed to keep moving in their assigned area of operation to provide free diagnostic and treatment facilities to patients very close to their localities.

A scrutiny of the public complaints made in the rural areas of Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Larkana, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Dadu, Jamshoro and other districts suggests that most people face common issues, the photos and video clips of complaints and complainants shared with this reporter make one to believe.

One of the common complaints is that the mobile hospitals are mostly seen stationed on the outskirts of their area of operation merely to make their presence felt while delivering no health facilities. The other common complaints are that patients and their accompanying relatives are excused on different pretexts such as unavailability of doctor, paramedic or support staff; machines out of order; unavailability of fuel to run generator or the mobile hospital; and unavailability of required medicines.

Some civil society activists from different districts, Nazir Ahmed, Anwar Ali, Manzoor Ali, Amjad Ali, Saifullah, Dost Mohammad and Abdul Malik urged Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Chief Minister

Syed Murad Ali Shah, Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho and Adviser to the CM Haji Rasool Bux Chandio to look into the issue on a priority basis. They called for a thorough probe into the utilisation of such a huge fund and ascertaining reasons behind the project’s failure to deliver.

Published in Dawn,May 24th, 2022