K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak speaks at inauguration of TB Eradication Programme mobile unit. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak stressed on curative measures for the eradication of tuberculosis (TB) from the country as he inaugurated a mobile unit of the TB Eradication Programme under the “Aao TB Mitao” campaign at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar. The programme is being executed in collaboration with the Indus Hospitals Services.
Khattak announced that the programme will initially be launched in five districts of the province including Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi and Dera Ismail Khan. It will be gradually extended to all parts of the province.
Under the programme, the Indus Hospital Services would provide Rs7 billion worth of free treatment to TB patients in five big cities and districts of the province wherein well-equipped medicare mobile units would be provided for extending the free treatment of patients at their doorstep.
During the launch ceremony, Khattak reminded that TB was a chronic and fatal disease which badly affects the overall social fabric and productivity of a society.
The TB control programme, he said, had been designed to eradicate the disease, adding that bringing the disease to a minimum level as per national and global targets was the top priority of his government.
Khattak stressed all the stakeholders, including public and private organizations, children and youth in schools and colleges, to actively participate in the campaign.
Detailing tools they will be using in the fight against TB, Khattak said that they will be using a new Gene Expert Machine to help doctors diagnose TB patients and treat them accordingly. Noting that this sector had been ignored in the past with political interference rife in health institutions, he said that their reforms were yielding positive results.
Khattak thanked Indus Health Network President Dr Abdul Bari Khan for extending the program to the province after its successful implementation in Karachi.
The chief minister noted that giving financial and administrative autonomy to hospitals was the biggest challenge for the provincial government, but one which had paid dividends. Noting that doctors could not perform their professional obligations satisfactorily when mired in financial problems, they had taken a drastic step of astronomically increasing of health employees, doctors now earning Rs200,000 compared to just Rs45,000 previously.
Similarly, he said that the number of doctors was had been nearly tripled from 2,500 to 7,500 to ensure there was a doctor in every health centre of the province.
Apart from hiring new doctors and staff, Khattak said that they had set up an independent monitoring unit (IMU), provided the latest equipment, increased allowances, set up pharmacies, insulin banks, provided incentives for mother and child maternity health services and ensured cleanliness at hospitals.
He disclosed that a telemedicine programme will be launched early next year to enable poor patients in remote areas to call-in diagnostic and treatment facilities from the specialist doctors sitting in hospitals of big cities.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2017.
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