Health facilities Quetta
Normally two types of health facilities are available in the District, curative and preventive. As far as prevention is concerned, this includes vaccination of mothers and children up to the age of 5 years through immunisation coverage, which according to the Health Authorities is:
Provincial Civil Hospital Quetta.
Children up to the age of 11 months were immunized for BCG, DPT and Measles in Quetta district, Their coverage was 97%, 66% and 60% respectively. For those children whose age was between 12 – 23 months the percentages were 23%, 15% and 24% respectively. Ante-natal vaccination is of two types: vaccination to pregnant women and, secondly, care of the pregnant mother. Pregnant women were given TT1 and TT2 for prevention (58% and 42% respectively). According to the district health authorities, the infant mortality rate is very high. This is due to non-hygienic conditions, illiteracy, lack of information etc. The maternity death rate is also high, through it is less as compared to rural districts.
There are 5 government hospitals working in the district. They provide treatment facilities to men and women. However, there is no separate government hospital for ladies. Moreover, there are hospitals run by various organizations for their staff members and their families, like Railway, WAPDA, Cantonment Board, Combined Military Hospital (CMH) etc. They also provide treatment facilities to general public. As mentioned before, there are at least 30 private hospitals in Quetta. The treatment cost of private hospitals is much higher than that of the government controlled hospitals. There is no data available to show the exact number of patients who visit the hospitals.
Outdoor Patient Block of Civil Hospital.
However, according to the Medical Superintendent Civil Hospital Quetta, more than 5,000 patients daily visit the hospital for treatment. These patients include indoor and outdoor patients. According to the District Health Officer (DHO), the patients visiting RHCs, BHU, Dispensaries etc is annually more than 272,000. The absence of data makes it difficult to estimate the cost per patient, per contact. However, in the private sector the cost per patient per contract may range from at least Rs.100/= to Rs.3000/=, depending on the type of disease and on the type of specialist/doctor and the test recommend by him.
There is no data available regarding the private sector involvement in health activities to demonstrate the number of registered cases as a percentage of the total population. Some sketchy data is available which cannot be used to compute the percentage of the population visiting hospitals.
Two other types of facilities are available. The homeopathic way of treatment is popular among the masses due to the belief that this type of treatment has no side effects. Moreover, its medicines, are comparatively cheaper. People also visit Hakeems who treat them with traditional oriental herbs and shrubs.
Gynecology Ward of Civil Hospital.
As far as family planning services are concerned, they are being provided in all D.H.O offices and also in the civil hospital. There is a growing awareness and public approval
in favour of family planning. This may be due to the electronic media campaign and thedemonstration effect witnessed by the society. Due to this, in 1996 more than 1,700
women made use of family planning services. It is worth mentioning that patients from outside the district and even from Afghanistan visit Quetta for treatment. One reason is the proximity of Quetta to Afghanistan.