Health Ziarat

Introduction

The state of health of the district population in general seems to be satisfactory, measured by provincial standards. The number of medical units in the public sector is considered fair on the whole, but there are a number of localities in valleys where there are no medical facilities and from where it is not easy to bring the patients to medical units in other areas, as roads are bad or absent. The worst victims of this situation are the women and infants. Many women die while pregnant due to non availability of timely medical aid.

On the quality of medical attention and the overall state of medical services, there are different views. On the whole, it appears that the district's public sector health system compares well with most other districts in terms of quality of service. There are however, staffing and other problems which are affecting the systems efficiency.

Health System

The health system comprises predominantly the government health service. The number of private qualified doctors and hakeem in the district is not known, but is believed to be small. A few NGOs are engaged in activities contributing to child welfare, family planning and patients welfare.

The past health information reporting system was poor, according to the district's health officer. With the adoption of HMIS (Health Management Information System) the reliability of various indicators is expected to improve.

Major Disease Incidence

Major diseases in the district are: ARI (Acute respiratory infection), Diarrhoea; PUO (fever), arthritis; skin diseases. Information on the incidence of these diseases is not available.

Special Health Services

There is one MCH (Mother and Child Health Centre) in the district. Facilities for vaccination and inoculation are available at the civil hospital and BHUs. Some 45% of the children under 2-years age were fully immunized by the district health service system. The district's special health service system has adopted PHC and TBA. Forty-eight trained LHVs are working, and 36 TBA’s, have been trained.

Administration of Health Services

The government Health Department is headed by a District Health Officer(DHO). The staff comprises the following:

GO/NGO/private, etc. involvement in Health Development

Conclusion and major Development Issues

The overall situation in respect of health services is satisfactory by provincial standards. There are, however, problems and there is much scope for further improvement.

The major issues are:

* Non-availability of local female staff - LHVs and Nurses.

* Poor Laboratory facilities.

* Non-availability of specialist services at district level.

* Lack of health facilities in remote areas.

Besides the other problems, as reported by Health Department officers, it is felt that the medical officers do not have appropriate residential and transport facilities. An issue of general nature is that of high illiteracy of the people and the unhygienic living conditions and personal habits. Improvement in these respects would help lower the incidence of illness. This stresses the need for a widespread health education programme.

For further recognition of the importance of family planning and mother and child health care activities aimed at the raising of awareness of both man and women have to be under taken. At the same time the establishment of more MCH facilities is required.

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