OUR STAFF REPORTER
SIALKOT
The government is still unable to provide medicines to the district and tehsil headquarters hospitals, basic health units, rural health centres and health dispensaries in Sialkot district despite the passages of four months of current fiscal year 2014-15.
The local social, political, religious and health circles have expressed grave concerns over the inordinate delay in the provision of medicines to the government health facilities. They urged Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the situation and ensure earl provision of medicines.
Because of the unavailability of medicines, the indoor and outdoor patients have been suffering great difficulties as they were forced to purchase the medicines from the private medical stores to continue their medical treatment.
In addition, the RHCs and BHUs have also been facing shortage of male and female medical officers. Govt Allama Iqbal Memorial DHQ Hospital and Govt Sardar Begum Memorial DHQ Hospital have already been given the status of teaching hospitals under the supervision of Govt. Kh. Safdar Medical College Sialkot. Even then, these DHQ hospitals are faced with the dearth of medicines, adding to the grievances of patients.
In Daska, the government has already allocated Rs10 million as budget for purchasing medicines for the patients of 187-bed Civil Hospital. Forty-seven posts of different categories including one post of chest specialist, one post of APMO, two posts of anesthetists, three posts of gynecologists, three posts of SWMO, one post of nursing superintendent, 12 posts of medical officers, four seats of charge nurses and two seats of ECG technicians have been lying vacant at Daska Civil Hospital since long.
In Pasrur, the government allocated Rs6 million budget for the medicines in 40-bed THQ Hospital. It allocated Rs4 million for medicines for 40-bed Sambrial THQ Hospital.
When contacted, Health Department said that four months of the current fiscal year 2014-15 have passed, but the tenders for the purchase of the medicines have not yet been invited by the Health Department for the purchase and provision of medicines.
The Pasrur THQ Hospital is also faced with the shortage of doctors. Six posts of the medical officers, one seat of medical surgeon, one seat of orthopedic surgeon, one gynecologist and one seat of anesthesia specialists have been lying vacant since long. As a result, the indoor and outdoor patients belonging to Pasrur city and its suburban areas of Pasrur including Qila Kalarwala, Kingra, Chobara, Sabzpeer, Charwah and Tharo Mandi have been suffering great difficulties in getting medical treatment there.
HOME-BASED WORKERS’ DAY OBSERVED: The Home-Based Workers Day was marked on Wednesday and the main ceremony was held by UN Women, Baidarie and Home Net Pakistan at the auditorium of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The day was celebrated for the first time in the history of Sialkot with the renewed pledges to make efforts to provide basic rights to the home-based workers. A large number of home-based workers participated in the celebration and raised their voice for the provision and protection of their basic rights in the society.
The day-long discussion during the event reinforced the demand for adoption of policy on home-based workers, much needed legislation and it’s across the board implementation to protect and promote the rights of such workers in the informal sector of national economy.
The speakers including Malik Naseer Ahmed, the vice president of SCCI, Babar Raza, manager Home Net Pakistan,  Prof Arshad Mehmood, Sarwar Ehsan, Ms Shaheena Kausar, Dr Nouman Idrees Butt, Dr David Sohail, Javaid Iqbal Gill and Hina Noureen highlighted the home-based workers’ problems, their demands and the government’s efforts to provide and protect their rights.
During the event , Prof Arshad also shared the progress and results of “Programme for Integrated Support for Socio-Economic Rehabilitation of the Jobless Women Soccer Stitchers in Sialkot-Pakistan”, a project being implemented by Sialkot district with the technical and financial support by UN Women.