By Hasnain Raza

Why a lot of patients are rushed to Multan, Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and other big cities? Why hundreds of patients from remote areas die every year on the way to hospital? Why we don’t have medical facilities at our doorstep, when governments claim healthcare is a priority? 

People usually talks about topics of politics, economy and defence but no one likes to talk about the medical field of our country. Medical facilities in Pakistan are centuries-old, especially in the remote areas of Pakistan like D.G. Khan. In developed countries of the world medical facilities are there first priority like in UK, America and Canada. These countries provide free and better medical facilities to the people of their country. Salary of doctors is very high and they produced very talented doctors every year who are competent in their field.

Dera Ghazi Khan the mid-country city needs better medical facilities, plus medical college for the people of this city and also the other remote areas who are attached to this city and depend on Dera Ghazi Khan for hospital, education and transportation. These areas include like Rojhan, Layya and Bakhar. Due to this factor the government of Punjab took the initiative and announced the Ghazi Khan Medical College in 2010, initial classes of Ghazi Khan Medical College were held in Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, which were shifted to the D.G.Khan on November 28, 2011.

D.G. Khan medical college is a great blessing not only for the city or district but for the nearby districts. Ghazi Khan Medical College is the only teaching DHQ hospital catering to a large population of the disctrict and surrounding areas. It provide healthcare facilities to the patients coming from Barkhan district of Balochistan, Larkana division and all western belt of river Indus situated in Sindh province. People living between D.G.Khan and D.I.Khan have the only one hospital for all types of patients from emergency patients to usual outpatient department.

While students from all over the province are accommodated for education and training without quota system.

Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has strict rules and regulations that all medical college must have appropriate certified professors, all the equipment must be available but this is the achilles heel of the government. The hospital is still unable to fulfil the requirement and cause regular disaffiliation from PMDC. The government should provide facilities to professors of the countries so that they should come to D.G. Khan to facilitate the study structure and to run OPDS, indoors and emergencies.

The government should provide the equipment’s like CT Scanned, MRI because this is the need of time. Suppose if patient of car accident is carried right from Rojhan Mazari (the boarded city of Punjab) to D.G.Khan after a precious travel of 2-3 hours and then further referred to Nishter Hospital Multan (2 more hours) just because of non-availability of CT Scan and these 4-5 precious hours are cobble stones for the life of the patient.

Government should provide new and advanced equipment’s and upgrade the DHQ hospital of D.G.Khan so that people of this city should not referred to Multan, Lahore and that will in return insure the decreasing the burden on Nishter Hospital Multan and Lahore Hospitals. It will be a load sharing for them those already registering 900-1500 approximately new patients daily in OPDS and emergencies.

(The writer is Media Studies Scholar and The Educationist DG Khan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at: [email protected])