LAHORE: Punjab Primary & Secondary Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan has said that the provincial department will prepare a state-of-the-art Integrated Disease Surveillance & Response System (IDRS) to monitor all communicable diseases and to combat any epidemic. In this context the Health Department would welcome support of Department for International Development (DFID) UK.
He stated this while talking to a delegation of DFID in his office at Birdwood Road on Wednesday. The DFID delegation comprised DFID Pakistan Deputy Head Ruth Lawsow and other Public Health England (PHE) representatives. Punjab Public Health Agency (PPHA) Chief Executive Officer Dr Shabnam Sarfraz, Technical Additional Secretary Dr Asim Altaf, IRMNCH Provincial Director Dr Mukhtar Hussain Syed, Development Additional Secretary Ms Fatima Shah and Technical DS Dr Yadullah were also present in the meeting.
Ali Jan Khan said that the department would welcome technical cooperation of DFID and PHE for setting up an integrated system for disease surveillance. He said that it must not be limited to only reporting generating system. It must be a true integrated disease surveillance system in which all hospitals of the health departments, all pathological labs and private practitioners must share data to the system in real time.
The provincial secretary said that PPHA is already seeking help from the Turkish Ministry of Health and recently their team visited Turkey for to seek support with the IDRS.
Meanwhile, a team of technical experts from GE Healthcare, UK also called on Ali Jan Khan. During their meeting, both the parties agreed for establishing training centre to cooperate in field of technical training with the objectives of reducing maternal mortality (MMR) and new born mortalities in the province. It was decided that a strategic cooperation agreement would be signed between Primary & Secondary Health Department of Punjab and GE Healthcare.
