CADD meeting: ‘Setting up health centres in new sectors’

Measures to be taken to improve health services provided in capital

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) minister was briefed here on Monday on the various initiatives taken to improve health sector in the city.

The meeting looked into possibilities of making rural and basic health units further functional in Islamabad, and to build maternal and child health centres in new sectors under the Prime Minister’s Health Reform Program.

The (CADD) Minister of State, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, while chairing the meeting said the Prime Minister’s Health Reforms Program for Islamabad had long been awaited by citizens of the capital and it would be implemented in its true letter and spirit.

CADD secretary, CDA chairperson, Islamabad deputy commissioner, and all the heads of the health institutes in Islamabad participated in the meeting.

There are 16 basic health units (BHUs) and three rural health centres (RHCs) in Islamabad but a lack of facilities and staff in these centres had overburdened the two major government hospitals in the city.

Islamabad deputy commissioner briefed the meeting on the condition of the existing BHUs and RHCs.

He also briefed the minister about mechanism to provide all modern health facilities and equipment in those centres and provision of trained staff and qualified doctors.

It was decided to train postgraduate doctors of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and the Polyclinic Hospital, who would be deployed in the BHUs and the RHCs.

These doctors would be paid hardship allowance in addition to their routine pay.

It was also decided that the service structure of the doctors serving in the BHUs and the RHCs would also be similar to those working at the leading hospitals.

Furthermore, Islamabad deputy commissioner would visit Rawat, Bara Kahu and Sihala health centres and present his report to the minister of state for further action.

The minister also directed the CDA chairperson to arrange suitable tracts of land for the establishment of Mother and Child Care Centers in new sectors of Islamabad to reduce the patient load on tertiary care hospitals.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2016.