The recommendations of the technical workshop, held last month, have been received by the Health Department and these would be helpful to prepare an action plan for the improvement of secondary healthcare, said Advisor to Punjab Chief Minister on Health Salman Rafiq Friday in a meeting with World Health Organisation Country Director Dr Michel Thieren who called on the advisor to have a detailed discussion with on the improvement in primary and secondary health sectors and prevalent polio situation in Pakistan.
Secretary Health Jawad Raffique Malik, Director General Health Dr Zahid Pervaiz, Director Policy and Strategic Planning Unit (PSPU) Health Department Ali Bahadur Qazi, Director Health EPI Dr Munir Ahmad and the members of WHO’s delegation, including Dr Yahya Gulzar, Dr Jamshed Ahmad, Dr Aamir and Dr. Asif were also present in the meeting.
Secretary Health Jawad Raffique Malik appreciated the WHO country director for extending cooperation for holding a technical workshop for the preparation of recommendations to introduce reforms in secondary healthcare.
After the approval of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Rafiq said that said that the action plan would also be shared with WHO and other development partners. He observed that billions of rupees would be required for the up-gradation of the infrastructure of district and tehsil headquarter hospitals, repair and maintenance of bio-medical equipment and special incentives for the doctors and nurses for the uplift of secondary healthcare system in the province.
During the meeting, polio situation, particularly in Pakistan, and in Punjab, was also discussed. The advisor informed that continuous, vigorous anti-polio campaigns are being carried out in Punjab, despite some security issues. He said that, during the low polio virus season, all the provinces should avail this opportunity for eradication of polio and concrete efforts should be taken for comprehensive anti-polio campaign in the country. He observed that any single province cannot eradicate polio in isolation, while having big polio virus reservoirs in many areas of Pakistan.
GOVERNMENT TRYING HARD TO REVAMP HEALTHCARE:
Meanwhile talking to various delegations of people, doctors and paramedics on Friday, Punjab Minister for Excise, Taxation, Law and Finance Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said the Punjab government is paying full attention to provide state-of-the-art healthcare facilities to the people at grass roots level.
Rehman asked the doctor’s community to create awareness among the masses regarding donation of human organs to save the ailing humanity. He said that 50 thousand die each year because of kidney failure, 10 thousand because of liver failure and more than six thousand due to heart failure in the country. He said that it is high time for promoting social mobilisation against smoking also as billions of rupees are being wasted on smoking annually which is the major cause of spread of deadly diseases like Tuberculosis and lungs cancer.