FIELD VISIT- Basic Health Unit-Burj Attari, District Sheikhupura

Experiential Learning-1

Submitted By

2020-01-0012
2020-01-0020
2020-01-0037
2020-01-0045
2020-01-0066
2020-01-0068

Date: 9th October, 2018

 FIELD VISIT- Basic Health Unit- Burj Attari District Sheikhupura

Introduction:

Basic health unit is the primary level of health care considered to be necessary to maintain
adequate health and protection at the very root level. Each Union Council within the province
has a BHU that is required to serve the basic health needs of the population of 10,000-25,000
people living in the nearby area. The BHU we visited was located in Sheikhupura which is about
40 km away from Lahore. This BHU along with another BHU was catering to the health needs of
about 40,000 people living in that area.

Day to Day working:

The basic day to day working of the BHU includes very basic diagnosis, first level referrals for
patients referred by Lady Health Workers LHWs and primary level curative care using approved
essential drugs list. The drug list includes 18 basic drugs such as painkillers, anti-allergic, anti-
worm infestation and AP. BHU provides maternity services which include birth preparation
counseling, conduction of normal deliveries, antenatal care, post-natal care of newborns and
children, but only in cases of emergency. For majority of cases it refers patients to Tertiary
Health Care Units due to lack of facilities and infrastructure. The BHU conducts check-ups of
approximately 35-40 patients daily.

Resources:

Each BHU does not have an ambulance of their own but instead about 20 ambulances have been
designated to the whole district. The basic drugs and equipment are bought in out the budget
allotted for these BHU’s. The budget is given by the health council and previously 5 lac were
allocated to these BHUs in 10 years. The daily expenses such as electricity bills and transport
expense are carried by the staff who may or may not be reimbursed.

Campaigns and Communication:

After few months, several campaigns are run for the awareness of the general public and to
provide immediate care and facilities. These campaigns include Polio, Dengue, Measles etc.
These campaigns are usually conducted for 5 to 7 days. The timings of the staff is from 8am to
2pm. The pay for the whole campaign given to 1 worker is RS.1900. A drastic decrease in the
diseases is experienced after the successful initiation of these campaigns.

Human Resource (HR):

The BHU is run by a Lady Medical Officer who recommends medicine and incase of serious
case, the patient is referred to RHC. The BHU consists of 14 staff members including Lady
Health Visitors (LHV), Lady Health Workers (LHW), Nutritionist, midwives and sweepers etc.
The minimum requirement for LHV is 2 Year diploma in Gynecology. The Lady medical officer
is hired by the government sector after passing through tests conducted by the PPSC and NTS.
No administrative training is given to these workers and doctors after they are appointed to their
designated BHU.

Staff List of BHU

Post Name Sanctioned Fill

1 MO/WMO 1 1
2 SHNS 1 1
3 CO 1 0
4 LHV 2 2
 5 SI 1 1
6 Dispenser 1 1
7 MW 1 1
8 CDC. Supervisor 2 2
9 Vaccinator 1 1
10 LHS 1 1
11 N.Q 1 1
12 Chowk 1 1
13 LHW 24 24
14 S.W 1 1
15 MHT 1 0
16 Security Guard 1 0

Challenges

A major challenge facing the BHUs is the lack of physical resource, infrastructure and
inaccessibility. There is also a lot of community involvement as well as political involvement in
different occasions. Due to the BHU’s incapability and incapacity, they are unable to provide
diagnosis to the serious patients. These units are in crucial need of other equipment and doctors
in order to be able to diagnose the patients rather than simply referring them to other hospitals.
There are a lot of technical and maintenance issues due to lack of funds. Other problems includes
a lack of campaigns initiated by the Health sector in the villages. Also the pay given to the
workers conducting these campaign is very low and needs to be increased. Load shedding further
dampens the performance of not only these Small units but also the large hospitals.

Conclusion

Overall, the BHUs are seriously affected by the lack of funds and budget allocated to the Health
Sector by the Government of Pakistan. More funds and infrastructure needs to be allotted to
these basic units to increase their efficiencies and to provide basic health facilities at the very
root level. Furthermore, theses BHUs also suffer from lack of testing and laboratory equipment,
which puts strain on THQ Centers in the form of referrals from BHUs.