Transfer of facilities from PRSP to district admins by end June: Rafique

Routine immunisation coverage in the province reaches 86 per cent, meeting told

LAHORE: Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique on Sunday directed the Health EDOs of 14 districts where management of some public health facilities was earlier delegated to the Pakistan Rural Support Programme (PRSP) to start preparations for again taking charge of the facilities.

He said the facilities would be handed back to the district administrations concerned by the end of June.

He said this at the monthly meeting with the Health EDOs, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan and Health Services Director General Mukhtar Hussein Syed.

The Health EDOs concerned were asked to form committees for overseeing the transition from the PRSP to the district administration. “You should ensure that healthcare facilities and other assets are handed back to the district in a professional manner,” he said.

Rafique said that districts failing to improve their key performance indicators would face punitive action. He said vacancies in these districts would be announced in accordance with the procedure.

The health secretary directed the district administrations to ensure adequate supply of medicines and other material as per guidelines issued by the chief minister. Reviewing data on medicine procurement, he said special care should be taken for availability of adequate supplies at the emergency and outdoor patient department wards.

The Health Services director general said unnecessary delays in completion of development projects should be avoided. He asked district administrations facing any issues in execution of their ongoing projects to approach his office for redress.

EPI Director Munir Ahmed told the meeting that based on data gathered through a recent survey the coverage of routine immunisation in the province had reached 86 per cent. He said that in April anti-polio immunisation campaign would be held in selected districts. He said April 25 would be marked as the National Switch Day and trivalent vaccine used in immunisation campaigns would be replaced with bivalent vaccines. He said it was important that the country fulfilled its global commitments and the switching of vaccines should be ensured across the province. He asked the Health EDOs to obtain certificates in this regard from all facilities in their jurisdictions and to submit them with the authorities concerned.

Later, the Chief Minister Roadmap team shared district-wise data on staff presence, biometric attendance, hospital cleanliness, medicine availability and safe deliveries. The meeting was told that the nursing staff’s attendance had remained on target.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2016.