Pakistan: Govt hospitals in Sindh's Shikharpur and Kashmore Kandhkot lack clean drinking water, sanitation

Sindh [Pakistan], May 17 (ANI): A team of the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) found unavailability of clean drinking water, absence of cleanliness and sanitation, power outages with no backup systems, poor infrastructure, and shortage of staff in government hospitals in Shikarpur and Kashmore-Kandhkot districts of Pakistan's Sindh on Thursday and Friday, The Express Tribune reported.

SHRC Chairman Iqbal Ahmed Detho, who led the visits to the hospitals, mentioned about the absence of adequate toilets, improper seating arrangements, a shortfall of beds for patients, and missing supplies of free medicines.

He noted that many female patients in the sweltering heat were sitting on the floor due to the lack of proper seating arrangements and waiting rooms outside an overcrowded outpatient department, The Express Tribune reported.

At the Taluka Headquarters Hospital (THQ) in Kandhkot, Chairman Detho instructed the authorities to ensure the earliest shifting of the hospital to its new building. He directed the District Health Officer, Dr Aijaz Ali Shah, and Medical Superintendent Shahnawaz Dahani, to improve the state of services and facilities in the existing building.

About the Taluka Hospital Lakhi in Shikarpur, Iqbal Ahmed Detho said, "in extremely hot conditions, the patients were found lying helplessly on beds during power outages." Further, through the cross-section of the civil societies, with whom interactive sessions were separately organised in the two districts, the commission identified health service related issues to the HRCP.

Iqbal Ahmed Detho visited the judicial lockup in Kashmore-Kandhkot district, which is infested with bandits, tribal conflicts, robberies, and drug peddling issues, The Express Tribune reported.

Kashmore-Kandhkot does not have a district jail, and prisoners from the district are mostly held in Shikarpur prison. Detho stressed the need for establishing district jail, as the absence of district jail "results in the denial of visitation rights, and delays in appearance before the trial courts." (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)