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Health expert

body members

visit NWFP

PESHAWAR: A committee of experts on health reforms constituted by Federal Health Minister Dr Abdul Malik Kansi on Saturday visited Peshawar and held lengthy meeting with the high-ranking officers of the provincial Health Department on implementation of reforms.

The meeting was chaired by provincial Health Minister Dr Shaheen Sardar Ali Khan. The health committee headed by Maj Gen. Ahsan Ahmad, Director General, Health, Government of Pakistan included Additional Secretary, Health, Punjab Province, Dr. Tahir Mir, Health Education Adviser, Abdul Sattar Chaudhry, Chairman, Pakistan Medical Research Council, Maj. Gen. Akhtar Qureshi, National Manager, EPI programme, Dr Rehan Hafiz, Director Institute of Public Health, Balochistan Professor Sikandar Riaz and others. The officers of the NWFP Health Department attending the meeting included Secretary, Health, Syed Asif Shah, professor Dr Shafiq, Professor Dr Meher Taj Roghani, Dr Jamil Bangash and others.

The health committee told the meeting that the health sector was facing many problems like poor management of health services, poor quality of services, absenteeism, un-professional attitude of staff and lack of accountability. The members of the committee told the meeting that a strategy has been evolved to reform the health sector by taking certain measures including decentralisation of powers, improvement in the utilisation of health facilities, integration of the existing health care delivery programme like EPI, malaria control, nutrition and mother child health within the PHC system, introduction of performance based accountability and promotion of inter sectoral coordination at all levels.

The committee told the meeting that the said reforms package was a general guideline for improving the health services in all the provinces of the country. The provinces would have complete autonomy to devise their own reforms package in keeping with their own circumstances. The reforms package did not aim at creating a new system. It, however, aimed at re-activating the existing institutions within the existing resources to achieve maximum results.

Speaking on the occasion the Health Minister said it was heartening that the federal government was taking the provinces into confidence in implementing the policies. She said that a committee would be formed in a couple of days to compare the reforms package of the federal government and the one already prepared in the province.ÑAPP