Ernest Dempsey – Over the past year, the condition of the emergency department in Pakistan’s northwestern town Hangu’s civil hospital has changed radically. Hangu’s only government hospital, the District Headquarters (DHQ) hospital, situated along the main Hangu-Kohat highway in downtown Hangu, had an emergency department where all you got in emergencies was your temperature taken by a doctor—if he was still waking, or present at all, in late hours. No tests, no medicine, and no care were available to emergency patients. Most people of the town knew that for any emergency, they better rush to the nearest big city hospitals instead of relying on the local hospital for urgent treatment.But this was before the arrival of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the town. With government’s permission, the French medical relief organization took charge of the emergency department of DHQ Hangu in 2009. This was blessings in MSF uniform for the patients who faced emergencies, especially in a time when Hangu town and its suburbs were targets of terrorist violence. MSF radically transformed the emergency department in no time. Now, the hospital’s emergency section had its own labs for a number of medical tests; there was a competent surgeon to operate on patients in need of immediate surgery; the emergency’s medical store was filled with fresh medicine and accessories—and all this for free.
MSF radically transformed emergency services at the Hangu’s hospital, for better of course. Dozens of lives were saved by these earthly angels who are committed to serving the poor and otherwise helpless patients of Hangu town and its suburbs. Sadly though, a particular group of people finds MSF’s presence in Hangu unbearable. These are local people who used to sell the hospital’s medicine and supplies in black, robbing patients of free medicine and emergency treatment facilities. MSF’s rule of transparency put an end to their pilfering as well as the profit some of the medial stores outside the hospital were making due to sale of emergency medicine the patients were denied in hospital before MSF’s arrival. More than once, these profiteers tried to evoke hatred against MSF, secretly hoping threats of protests and violence would drive the MSF staff away.
Fortune and MSF’s fortitude, however, played on the good side. Patients have generally been happy and relieved with the services they are getting at DHQ Hangu’s emergency department without having to spend much. If there is one good example relief workers have set for all to follow, it is the MSF’s relief work in Hangu. Hopefully, some famous media channel will pick this story and cover MSF’s achievements in Hangu in great detail for all to see and follow.
