Junta boss’s vow to dispatch health workers to rural Arakan as yet unfulfilled

By Admin 26 Aug 2023

DMG Newsroom
26 August 2023, Sittwe

Junta boss General Min Aung Hlaing said during a visit to Arakan State on July 11 that the necessary health workers would be appointed for the hospitals in Arakan State, but that pledge has not yet been implemented.

There are many sick people in Rathedaung Township following Cyclone Mocha and there are not enough healthcare personnel in the township. The Department of Public Health (DPH) has dispatched three health workers to the township, but more health workers are still needed, said Dr. Tin Myint Oo, Medical Superintendent of Rathedaung People’s Hospital.

“The DPH cannot send necessary health workers. The DPH has dispatched an assistant doctor from Pauktaw and two nurses to Rathedaung People’s Hospital. I don’t know how many months they will be assigned here,” he explained.

Local people in post-cyclone Arakan State’s Sittwe, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Pauktaw townships are in need of proper healthcare services. The hospitals in these townships do not have enough healthcare workers and the residents are not getting full healthcare services.

There is no doctor at the Kutaung and Ugar rural healthcare centres in Rathedaung Township, so if the residents have an emergency, they have to go to Rathedaung, a three-hour journey from the village by water, to receive medical treatment.

“There is a rural station hospital in the area, but the lack of doctors is killing us. We would like to request the military junta to assign a doctor to the station hospital as soon as possible,” said Ko Maung Myat Aung, a local man from Ugar Village.

A 50-bed public hospital in Ramree, southern Arakan State, is run by one surgeon, two dentists and 25 nurses, and health workers there face difficulties in providing healthcare.

“A letter was presented to the DPH regarding the insufficient doctor at the hospital, but nothing has changed. Inadequate health workers cause problems between patients and medical staff,” said a health worker from Ramree Hospital.

There are hospitals and rural healthcare centres in various townships in Arakan State, but there are not enough health workers and the locals are facing difficulties in health matters.

“I want to say that the military junta only gave the locals a dream. No health worker has been assigned to the hospital. A government needs to focus on the people’s requirements,” said U Aung Thaung Shwe, a former Arakan State lawmaker for Buthidaung Township.

Doctors have not been assigned to 23 out of 53 rural station hospitals in Arakan State, according to the Arakan State DPH.

According to 2018 data, there are 70 hospitals in Arakan State including one 500-bed hospital, one 200-bed hospital, four 100-bed hospitals, eight 50-bed hospitals, four 25-bed hospitals, and 52 16-bed and cottage hospitals, along with 100 rural healthcare centres and 560 sub-rural healthcare centres.

The state is supposed to have 816 doctors, according to a standardised organisational structure, but there were only 236 doctors in 2018.