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Donors pledge to revive healthcare infrastructure in quake-hit areas

* Earthquake leaves 232 hospitals damaged
* Rs 5.5 billion needed for reconstruction

By Ghafar Ali

ABBOTTABAD: Donors pledged to extend all possible support in setting up health facilities in the earthquake-affected areas of the NWFP while participating in a “medium term plan development” workshop for the earthquake-affected districts of the NWFP.

The NWFP Health Department organised the conference in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and GTZ. Representatives of national and international agencies including the WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, Save the Children-US, Medicine Sans Frontier (MSF), International Federation of Red Cross, International Rescue Committee (IRC), International Medical Corps, Mercy Corps International, International Relief, International Organisation for Migration, Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, Pakistan Orthopaedic Association attended the conference.

The participating organisations pledged their support to the government for its long-term efforts in the health sector.

The Christopher Blindness Mission pledged to reconstruct the 230-bed District Headquarter Hospital (DHQ) in Battagram and Saudia Arabia offered to rebuild the DHQ Hospital in Mansehra.

For the medium-term, the Pakistan Institute for Community Ophthalmology will provide an 80-bed field hospital in Battagram. Zulfiqar and Friends is also setting up an 80-bed hospital in Balakot. Save the Children-US is setting up a 20-bed field hospital in Banna using Alaska structures, MSF is constructing up 100-bed field hospital in DHQ Mansehra, while the International Federation of Red Cross has erected up 200-bed field hospital at the Ayub Teaching Hospital.

The Aga Khan Health Services are opening two 10-bed facilities at Gari Habibullah and Kewaii. The IRC has pledged to rebuild five health facilities and Mercy Corps International six health facilities. The Saudi Red Crescent has also offered to set up a 500-bed hospital and the site is under consideration.

Dr Khalif Biles, the WHO country representative, called for coordinated efforts. The organisation has pledged to provide five ambulances to Mansehra and Battagram, mass immunisation against measles and tetanus, revitalisation and technical support to Primary Health Care (PHC) services in all districts and mini PHC kits to community based health workers. They will also keep watch of diseases and give policy and strategy support and help in the capacity building of facility staff and lady health workers in PHCs.

Rafah Salam, UNICEF’s country chief, pledged to provide mass immunisation against measles and tetanus and nutrition support and vitamin-A supplementation in all the five affected districts of the NWFP.

Earlier, Dr Aman told the participants of the conference about the magnitude of the damage to health facilities. He said a total of 232 facilities were damaged, of which 63 were totally destroyed and 169 were partially damaged, adding that the estimated cost of reconstruction and rehabilitation of these facilities would be around Rs 5.5 billion.

He said the health sector promptly responded to the catastrophe and has made a comprehensive plan to provide health care to the affected people. He said the short-term strategy includes providing additional human resources, medicine, equipment, mobile units and ambulances, setting up field hospitals at selected sites, deploying teams of national and international volunteers and establishing coordination committee.

Dr Aman said medical teams have been deployed in the inaccessible areas via helicopters. The teams helped airlift patients from damaged areas, he added.

He said involving the private sector and the armed forces hospitals is also part of the short-term strategy. The medium-term objectives, Dr Aman said are to revitalise and rehabilitate the district health system in the earthquake-affected areas on a temporary basis in pre-fabricated reinforced and winterised structures.

He said the medium-term strategy includes the development of minimum standards in terms of building, staff, services and equipment, prioritising health facilities based on accessibility and catchments populations. Dr Aman said the objective of the long-term strategy is to re-establish the district health system on permanent basis through the reconstruction of health facilities, the rehabilitation of health houses and the reactivation of national programmes and systems.

As part of the long-term plan, he said the NWFP Health Department would sign a memorandum of understanding with all partners on November 16 in Peshawar. He said the executive district officers for health will share district based medium and long-term plans for health facilities with the newly elected nazims and the district coordination officers, adding that the department will organise coordination meetings periodically with partners in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Peshawar to monitor the progress.

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