Key medical facility in quake zone faces closure

Immediate financial assistance is needed to keep a key paediatric unit running at the main hospital in the quake-hit Battagram district of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), officials at the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) said on Monday in Battagram city. The unit is in the frontline of child medical care in the region and has dealt with thousands of young victims of the regional earthquake that killed at least 80,000 in October last year. “We need to run this unit at least for another three months until a Japanese-funded transitional hospital is completed. But our existing agreement with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) expires in two days. If we close, the children of the whole region will be affected,” said Dr Shabbir Ahmed, head of child health in Battagram. Following an announcement by Islamabad that relief operations in the quake zone would cease by 31 March, local and international medical missions have been pulling out of the blighted region, leaving a huge gap in health facilities. “We have spoken to all related agencies, including UNICEF, WHO [World Health Organization] and a couple of international NGOs, but none have been able to provide funding to run the paediatric ward.” said PPA spokesman Dr Gohar Rehman from NWFP’s provincial capital, Peshawar. Rehman noted that the nearest alternative medical facilities for children were four hours’ drive away. The unit treats those injured in the earthquake and those suffering from medical conditions related to living in inadequate relief camps such as scabies and gastro-enteritis. PPA volunteers started operating in Battagram soon after the earthquake struck northern Pakistan. From November, UNICEF started funding salaries and also provided material to set up the paediatric ward. “Currently, we have 30 staff including 10 paediatricians and an equal number of health visitors, but beyond 17 May we don’t have funds to support our operation here,” Rehman added. Besides running a fully equipped 15-bed ward for children, PPA operates an out-patients department and also undertakes daily trips into the surrounding mountains and valleys of Thakot and Khozabanda. “We’ve treated well over 10,000 children since the disaster occurred last year,” Ahmed noted.