Lack of burn unit becomes burning question.

Byline: Majeed Gill

BAHAWALPUR -- The Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) is an over century-old health facility of the defunct Bahawalpur state but it lacks the much-needed burn unit.

Successive Punjab governments have pledged to provide the facility to the hospital but in vain.

In 2017, after the fire from an oil tanker blast, which burnt 124 people, now Thursday's horrible fire of 7-Up Tezgam, near here has once again underscored the need for the establishment of a burn unit at the BVH.

The BVH, established in1906, has undergone several phases of upgrade and has increased its capacity to accommodate more and more patients. In the 70s, it was declared a teaching hospital after the establishment of a medical college. The cabinet of the late prime minister, Muhammad Khan Junejo, had two health ministers from Bahawalpur division - federal health minister Syed Tasneem Nawaz Gardezi and Punjab health minister Jaffer Iqbal Gujjar, but the BVH could not get a burn unit.

Dawn learnt that before the 2017 oil tanker's tragedy near Ahmedpur East, a proposal wals floated by the Punjab government to set up a burn unit at the BVH but later the Lahore bureaucracy and the local lawmakers could not pursue the scheme.

However, after June 2017 oil tanker's tragedy, then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif gave a green signal to this effect and the scheme was also backed by his elder brother prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who dashed in an emergency to the scene of tragedy directly from Iran and seemed supportive to the need for a burn unit here. Later, nothing was done to get this scheme approved.

Quaid-i-Azam Medical College Principal Prof Dr Javed Iqbal, who is also chief executive officer of the local four health facilities, claimed the burn unit would be set up here under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and land had also been reserved near the government civil hospital on...