Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A sub-committee of the Senate’s Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination on Friday expressed shock over the mismanagement in the TB control programme.

The sub-committee met under Senator Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi. The meeting was attended by Senator Dr Ashok Kumar, the Ministry of Health joint secretary, and the National TB Control Programme deputy national manager.

The sub-committee was informed that out of the 95 mobile TB diagnosis vans, not even a single one was operating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The sub-committee strongly recommended having at least three to five mobile vans in Balochistan.

The lawmakers were informed that 70 such vans were operating in Sindh and 16 in Punjab.

The sub-committee was informed that the National TB Control Programme, operational since 2000, was being managed by an allied body of the ministry. The overall work of TB prevention and implementation is being run by the provinces.

A total of 510,000 estimated cases were found in 2016 and 366,061 were treated with a success rate of 93 percent.

The programme gets $144 million from a global fund. The amount is distributed among public and private sector hospitals after consultation in the Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) meetings.

A total of $88 million was given to the National TB Control Programme, $45 million to the Indus Hospital Karachi and 15 million to Mercy Corps.

Dr Aurangzeb from the TB Control Programme told the meeting that Indus Hospital had been repeatedly requested, but it had refused to start its mobile vans in Balochistan due to security concerns.

The sub-committee asked the Health Services joint secretary to write to the Balochistan Health secretary as well as to the hospital to immediately send mobile vans to Balochistan.

The meeting was informed that 135 medical units were currently operating in Balochistan, but a majority of doctors were concentrated in big cities. Senator Ashok Kumar said that incentives as well as security needed to be given to encourage working for TB control and diagnosis in periphery areas. The senators said that it was implausible that out of the total 366,061 diagnosed cases, only about 10,000 were detected in Balochistan. There must be more cases in Balochistan that have not been detected due to the non-availability of the mobile vans,” they said.

The committee convener said that steps should be taken to provide healthcare facilities to the people living in far-flung and remote areas.