550 basic health units of the province will be upgraded till 2015:Secretary Health Punjab Jawad Rafiq Malik

Lahore: On the instructions of Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif the implementation on the projects of upgrading district and tehsil headquarters hospitals besides rural health centers and basic health units has been started.

These views expressed by Secretary Health Punjab Jawad Rafiq Malik while addressing a conference of EDOs Health of the province at committee room of Directorate General Health Services. Director General Health Dr. Zahid Pervaiz, Provincial Chief of WHO Dr. Ubaid ul Islam, Dr. Aslam Chaudhry of Bill Gates Foundation, EDOs Health of all the districts, Director Health Programme besides members of the Punjab Health Roadmap Team were also present on the occasion.

The meeting was informed that 550 basic health units of the province will be upgraded till 2015 for implementation on health roadmap where facilities of labour room and mother and child health will be provided round the clock under programme 24/7. The meeting was informed that Hepatitis Control Week will be observed from 24 to 31 October throughout the province. On 27^th October, Hepatitis control conference will be held at Aiwan-e-Iqbal which will be attended by more than one thousands health experts. During Hepatitis Control Week, besides holding of seminars at all districts and tehsil headquarters hospitals and health centers, technical workshop and other functions will also be arranged for displaying of banners, protection measures for doctors, nurses and other staff, disposal of hospital waste as well as disposable syringes.

The meeting also reviewed polio, dengue, hepatitis situation, performance of mother and child health and other programmes, cleanliness condition in the hospitals, purchase and availability of medicines, attendance of doctors and other staff, progress of implementation on EPI, coverage, cold chain management, third party evaluation and other administrative affairs in detail. Kh. Salman Rafiq said that a number of problems are resolved through spirit and devotion to the work without resources. He said that if EDO health and medical superintendent of the concerned hospital work in a proactive manner, then many faults of the system can be removed. He said that during visit to different hospitals and health centers, problems relating to cleanliness and absenteeism of staff are observed.

Secretary Health Jawad Rafiq Malik said that health department needs such officers as could think for the improvement of health sector and their district after official timings. He directed all the EDOs health to submit their development schemes to concerned officers for approval by October 20 and besides sending SNE of their district to health department for seeking approval from finance department. He warned the officers to purchase medicines according to the need of the district in a transparent manner. He said that permission will not be given for wasting resources on unnecessary purchase. Secretary Health directed to improve cleanliness and arrangement for storing medicines in a proper manner.

Meanwhile, Secretary Health Punjab Jawad Rafique Malik has said that holding of training workshops are essential for capacity-building of health managers, uplift of health sector and providing best treatment facilities to the people for which computer technology and electronic gadgets will be utilized for organizing Provincial Health Center and district health centers on modern lines and changes will also be made in training modules.

He said this while addressing the concluding ceremony of capacity building training workshop of programme managers of district health development centers of the province at Provincial Health Development Center here today.

Director PHDC Dr. Sohail Saqlain, Director DHDC Lahore Dr. Shahid Ikram and programme managers of various districts attended the training workshop. Secretary Health said that billions of rupees have been allocated in ADP for the development of health sector. However, training of health managers and administrative doctors are vital for proper utilization of these resources and running the administrative matters of hospitals smoothly. He said that health development centres at district and provincial level have been established in the province for the long time but this facility was not benefitted properly and these training centers have been ignored.

Jawad Rafique Malik assured that computer technology and electronic gadgets will be used for harmonizing PHDC and all DHDCs according to the demands of present era for which besides improving infrastructure of these centers, missing facilities and staff will also be provided. He directed Dr Sohail Saqlain to immediately prepare PC-I and Concept Note for this purpose so that the work should be started on the project without any delay.

Earlier, Dr. Sohail Saqlain threw light on the achievements of the institution with regard to various training workshops continuing from May in Provincial Health Development Centre. Later, Secretary Health distributed certificates and shields among the participants of training workshop and the employees showing outstanding performance.