Mehrab Naseer
Teaching hospitals are believed to be foundations for quality medical education. Makran Medical college Turbat was established in 2017 along with other two medical colleges to meet the high demand for trustworthy doctors in the province. But after 4 years, the college is in need of its own teaching hospital.
On a visit to Turbat in July 2020 Chief Minister Punjab Sardar, Usman Buzdar announced to allocate a huge grant of Rs 1billion rupees(withdrawing 50 million rupees later) for establishing a 100-bed hospital for specialized health care and medical education in the province. Naming it “the symbol of interprovincial harmony and brotherhood”.Nearly after one year, the government of Balochistan tendered the project on 11th August 2021. But the project is yet to be initiated.
Before colleges were recognized by Pakistan medical commission in December 2021, the government of Balochistan turned the corresponding DHQ hospital into the teaching hospital to fulfill the criteria needed by the commission. Although DHQ hospital is being used since then, it still has so many shortcomings. By being at the forefront of medical education, teaching hospitals are inclined to come up with many advantages but unfortunately, DHQ hospital as a teaching hospital remains inadequate to produce well-trained health professionals. Students who attend the hospital for rotations complain about the undersupply of the health care system in this modern era where medical education has advanced. “A province is already lacking in good health professionals and facilities can never be managed the way to improve deteriorating health situations,” a student said. “It is utterly due, to facilitate us according to the need, so we can provide our services to the best of our abilities in future” another student added.
Balochistan where the health sector represents a gloomy picture. It can be computed by dire conditions of the people in the province, who are vulnerable to fatal diseases. Susceptibility to diseases like chickenpox, high nutritional deficiency diseases, and maternal mortality rate in the province verifies it . In many cases, wrong diagnosis approaches have been reported, which have either caused patients’ lives or paralysis for a lifetime. Prioritizing the health sector along with the education sector, establishing teaching hospitals to equip them with modern machinery are only solutions to the challenges being faced to produce competent health professionals. A delay to such projects only adds to the discomfort of the students and people, living in health facilities deprived regions.
Comparatively, the Governments in the other three provinces have taken immediate measures to address any issue on health care and medical education. Probably the reason, people in other provinces have access to the proper health care system. The Balochistan government is also required to attain the same model to gain objectives in the concerned field.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices does not necessarily agree with them.
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