The tragedy called "Balochistan's Healthcare"

While the rest of the Muslim world celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr this past week, a picture of a young man dragging his ailing father on what was supposed to be a donkey cart caused outrage in Balochistan. Basic healthcare is a luxury you cannot afford even after you spend all you got here. The trauma center at Sajid Hospital lacks the basic skills needed to conduct CPR on a young Jibran who was brutally shot at over property dispute. He lost his life owing to the bullets and to the incompetency of the medical staff and their limited means. Four month old Asad gets his arm amputated because a rickets vaccine administered at Quetta's Children's Hospital was left to stagnate in his arm. The nurse forgot to take off the strap that was tightly latched to the infant's arm preventing the vaccine to spread to the rest of the body. Two year old Aniqa suffers seizures every now and then because the fake doctor running a forgery clinic at Arbab Karam Khan road injected her with something meant for the common cold. Meanwhile, the doctors are on strike at the BMC and Civil Hospital for obvious dilemmas of colleagues going missing only to return as dumped bodies. Their only fault was; they dared to aid the people in need. Not to mention the countless polio workers shot dead for vaccinating children that is so acclaimed to deprive them of their fertility in their adulthood, although no scientific evidence as per se backs up that claim. Balochistan's healthcare situation did not deviate an inch from the norm. What defines the norm here is getting injected with used needles, being given unneeded steroids because the doctor has to honor his commitment to some pharmaceutical company with a promised percentage on a specific number of sales. Moreover, you might just get off the list since they don't seem to have the means to treat your cancer.

The year 2016 marked the year of the worst kind of police brutality in Pakistan when the police force at Quetta attacked the doctors protesting for a mere MRI machine. A 32 year old doctor with a specialization degree from an American University was left a blind because a rubber bullet hit him in the face. They demanded ample equipment at the Civil Hospital in Quetta and were refusing to call it quits till their demands were fulfilled. The fresh grad from the USA lost sight in both his eyes. It was barely a year into his tenure when he took the initiative to serve his own people rather than to live a comfortable life in America. He paid a hefty cost in return.

While entire Pakistan up-roared in anger when a bunch of Jash-e-Muhammad supporters were attacked with the same sort of bullets in Kashmir, no one raised a brow when doctors in Quetta were bleeding from their eyes and limbs at the hands of the police. Then again, this is Balochistan and the people here are by default not in the place to argue. The plight of summing up all that is needed to rectify the healthcare segment is a long one and as a beginner at whatever this is, I am not in the position nor in the capacity to list out everything that Balochistan needs in the healthcare department. However, I can list out a few problems that are a major hindrance to any improvements that could take place.

Cheating your way through college, favoritism, racism and more

This might sound a bit of a cliche but as big a nuisance it has become, one might begin with addressing the elephant in the room. At every nook and corner of Balochistan, there's a doctor you'll find more frequently than you will ever find a genuine bar of soap. As the world advances into exploring Black Holes and developing vaccines to combat Cancer, Balochistan is left to rot in the medieval ages with women in labor enduring childbirth in a ward that does not even have electricity. The lagging behind starts early here, right at the admissions stage at the infamous Bolan Medical College where just about anyone gets a pass. With an ever so outdated and depleted testing procedure, students are allowed to literally bring along text books to the examination halls where they cheat off of each other and would perhaps have their backup all set with their buddies on Watsapp. In the wilderness of the Pakistani system, everything goes. The cheating and favoritism however is spared to just one particular class of  pupils and that is, the Baloch ones. From being deprived of getting a seat at the only affordable medical university running in the entire province, Baloch students are subjected to stricter grading, are deprived of getting enrolled in the hostels even when they do score the highest and dare if they do get a chance to get past the entry test, they are now subjected to numerous forms of discrimination. A particular case I can recall is of an exemplary Baloch student coming from the elite Cambridge System of The City School who scored above 80% at all the subjects in her A levels and yet, was denied at the BMC for two years straight leaving her to opt for a private institute in Karachi. She now works at an elite private hospital there with better prospects. Students from Punjab domicile are preferred instead of the Baloch ones at every government institute in Balochistan. Next in line are our Pashtoon brothers who will always be preferred on top of the Baloch. One might tag me to be a bigot for bringing in ethnicity and race in talks about education and healthcare but when injustice and discrimination are the very lifeblood of a system, a racial-equality approach is an oxymoron. I'm talking about med school criterion but then again, it is the everlasting politics that has indeed exposed the agenda of those at the top. There is discrimination even in the education sector here and as degenerating that is in itself, the result is an  ever more insincere and exploitative staff that are only in it for the bucks.

The ones coming from other provinces and even across the border are only there for so long. Once they have fulfilled their agenda of securing the government scholarships that sends them abroad, why would they want to sweat away in the disease infested wards of Civil Hospital or BMC in Quetta? Even if they do stay back in this country, why Balochistan? It is out-rightly the worst of the provinces when it comes to security for the Punjabi. The ones true to their homeland are butchered with rubber bullets or whisked away for ransom. It's the survival of the fittest and even the fittest are not spared. Dr. Munaf Tareen is an example.

Fake medicines and shortages

The nuisance of fake medicines is nothing new but what reached alarming records is the fact that cough syrup was being replaced with something that costed the lives of 3 children. Lets not forget how something as basic as Panadol C&F was no where in sight in all of Balochistan for 2 years straight- the only medication that eases the excruciating fever most tend to catch in the blistering cold of Quetta. There are countless medications you will come across at the counter that just don't seem to have any effect. The strange phenomenon had intrigued someone enough to investigate the issue. The investigation revealed that the medicines being sold in Balochistan are actually expired goods imported from the West and repackaged in Pakistan with the expiry dates altered. The death caused by cough syrup was the highlight which is yet to be addressed but the entire scenario was brushed under the rug by the health department and covered up by the media-  but wait...what media? There is none here.

Equipment:

It wasn't long ago when videos surfaced of the Civil Hospital in Quetta of wards being flooded with sewerage water which was caused by overflowing main-holes in the city which in turn were a result of heavy rainfall. The infrastructure of the entire city is that of the 18th century which was built by the British and has not yet seen a reform but what about the basic necessities a hospital should have? Something as necessary as a ventilator or even an X-ray machine? Quetta's government healthcare venues don't even have that. Who is responsible for the lack of equipment in the hospitals? If the government is dispensing a sufficient budget to Balochistan, where is the money going at? Who is going to investigate that and even when the so proclaimed launderers are caught, is it that by detaining them behind bars will rectify the situation? Seldom ever is the money confiscated and even when it is confiscated, nothing ever revives the shortages where needed. The hospitals have always been deprived of getting  what they need in terms of equipment, medication and even electricity.

The politics and the politicians combined with their personal motives have long been unaltered and unmoved but then again, this is Balochistan- we are far less in flesh and blood so why would anyone care? Lets just scream for Kashmir and Palestine instead to showcase the "humanitarian" in us. After all, isn't that what's "#rightonfleek" these days? Or perhaps we need better photography to have the world spare us a few moments of concern. Our images of the dead children are not picturesque enough you know... How about some football shorts on a dead 4 year-old intead of the cringy shalwar? Lets bring in the Arab vibes... maybe then the world would as much as "sigh" for us here.

Article Author
Hani Qambrani