LAKKI MARWAT: The district headquarters hospital has failed to cater to the healthcare needs of the people as doctors and paramedics often remain absent from duty, allege residents of the area.

`Built at a cost of Rs200 million and equipped with modern medical instruments, the major health facility of the district is of no use for ailing people,` they said. They added that many doctors, paramedics and other employees often remained absent from duty, putting a question mark on the performance of hospital`s management and local health authorities.

`Only a few physicians come to the hospital to run its out patient department (OPD).The hospital wears a deserted look at night and people avoid visiting it because they can find no doctor there,` the local people alleged.

Several departments of the hospital including cardiology and eye could not be made functional so far.

One of the reasons that the hospital could not be made fully functional so far was that it was situated at a distance of 14 kilometres from Lakki city, the residents of the district said.

They said that people preferred visiting City Hospital in Lakki city to DHQ hospital in Tajazai.

They said that local lawmakers were also not taking interest in making the health facility fully functional.

However, MNA retired Col Ameerullah Marwat, after becoming a member of the parliament, paid several visits to the hospital to check the presence of doctors and other employees, they added.

The officials of district administration also visited the hospital on several occasions and forwarded their reports to higher authoritiesfor taking action against habitual absent doctors and paramedics but to no avail.

`It is my vision to make the hospital fully functional and save the residents from taking their patients to Bannu, Peshawar and other big cities for treatment,` MNA Ameerullah Marwat told this scribe.

He said that he had formed a two-member committee of local elders to keep a close liaison with the hospital`s management and health authorities to ensure presence of doctor, paramedics and other employees.

`Enough is enough. The truant employees including doctors will not be spared anymore,` the MNA said.

He said that the elders would report to him about the absenteeism of doctors and other employees and he would take up the matter with the quarters concerned to initiate action against them.

Haji Zarwali Khan, a member of the committee, said that he held a meeting with paramedics on the premises of hospital and urged them to perform their dutyhonestly.

`The hospital`s staff should keep in mind that there is no room for absenteeism and dereliction in duty,` he added.

RELIEF GOODS: Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF) distributed food and goods among the internally displaced persons of North Waziristan Agency in Serai Naurang on Wednesday.

The relief goods including food items, tents, sheets, utensils and water coolers were distributed among the IDPs at a function held at the hujra of Jamaat-i-Islami local leader Haji Azizullah Khan.

AKF provincial general secretary Mohammad Rafeeq, Noor Piao Khan, Abdul Ghaffar Faryadi, Liaquat Sayyam, Maulana Zahidullah Turabi, Abdul Hameed and Haji Azizullah Khan attended the function.

They said that they would provide all sorts of assistance to the affected tribesmen of North Waziristan Agency. They asked government to relax curfew in the troubled agency so that tribesmen could migrate to safer places.