Performance of basic healthcare units to be improved, PA told

Sindh Health Minister Azra Fazal Pechuho on Thursday assured the Sindh Assembly (SA) of improving basic healthcare units' performance in the province, saying that majority of them are already functional to dispense services to patients.

Replying to queries of legislators during the house questions and answers session, she said that total 22 basic healthcare units were closed out of 796 in the province, pointing out that several of them have shaky infrastructure as well. She said that the units are established in areas where big hospitals are missing to provide healthcare services to the public.

Replying to a question, she said that the government is working on overcoming hepatitis diseases, hoping that reduction in disease cases will soon be witnessed. She said that the disease is curable, informing the house that sexual interaction, reuse of blades or syringes are the main reason for hepatitis spread. She said that the province has nearly 4425 patients battling hepatitis C.

She told the legislators that the government plans to introduce auto-lock syringes whose use will end the traditional injecting instruments in the province. She said that one person has been arrested who now on bail from the court on charges of HIV spread in Larkana, saying that the deadly disease became epidemic through a private medical setup not by the government run hospital. In Tharparkar, she said that some 432 victims of snake bite were treated.

Faryal Talpur, PPP's central leader said that she was no longer in shackles and thanked the court for giving her a bail on merit. She said that she was not afraid of going to jails, either. She also thanked her party legislators for voicing in her favor while she was in a jail. She said that her moral is as higher as before going to the jail was and will continue her struggle. She said that she pays agriculture taxes every year and was framed in revenge through the NAB cases just because she was the sister of PPP Chairman, Asif Ali Zardari.