Preventive measures: ‘Measles vaccination drive is showing results’

Health officials directed to monitor treatment facilities at govt hospitals.

LAHORE:

A restructuring of the health department is necessary to enhance its efficiency and to improve the healthcare delivery system, Health Secretary Hassan Iqbal said on Wednesday. He was presiding over a meeting on the measles situation in the province.

He said last month’s anti-measles campaign in the City was paying off. He said people should realise that vaccination was important to save lives.

The health secretary said strengthening the basic health units (BHUs) and rural health centres (RHCs) was necessary for primary healthcare system’s success.

He said the district headquarter  hospitals and the tehsil headquarter hospitals had pediatricians and doctors should not unnecessarily refer measles patients to Lahore.



He directed the additional secretary and deputy secretaries to monitor the treatment facilities at the City’s government hospitals.

Speaking on the occasion, Health Director General Tanvir Ahmed said guidelines prepared by a high level committee for the treatment and management of measles patients were being sent to the district and tehsil headquarter hospitals.

Children’s Hospital Medical Director Ehsan Waheed Rathor said the measles patients could be treated at district hospitals.

He said the travel in many cases caused their condition to worsen. The City’s hospitals are already overburdened, he said.



Commissioner Naseem Nawaz,  DCO Naseem Sadiq, King Edward Medical University Vice Chancellor Faisal Masood, Additional Secretary (Technical) Anwar Janjua, World Health Organisation’s immunisation consultant Tariq Bhutta, Dr Aslam Janjua from the Bill Gates Foundation, EPI Director Munir Ahmed and PITB Chairman Umar Saif were also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2013.