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PHOTO: REUTERS
This was directed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister (CM) Mahmood Khan on Sunday while presiding over a follow-up meeting. K-P Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan, Advisor to the CM on Education Ziaullah Bangash, Advisor to CM on Tribal Areas Ajmal Wazir, Additional Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadir, Principal Secretary to CM Shahab Ali Shah, MPAs from merged areas Naseer Wazir, Ghazan Jamal, Muhammad Shafique, Syed Iqbal Mian, Anwar Zeb Khan and other relevant officials participated in the meeting.
During the meeting, Mahmood directed to finalise the Statements of New Expenditure (SNE) on time so that all those health units in NMTDs which are currently closed, can be reopened.
He further ordered to complete the recruitment process for health centres in NMTDs, including the shortlisting of candidates for recruitment of 60 District Monitoring Officers (DMOs) and Data Collection Assistants (DCAs). These officers will be responsible for monitoring the quality of services being provided and ensure standards for the services provided to the people are maintained.
These officers were directed to conduct regular and surprise monitoring visits of health service units to gauge performance against set indicators.
The chief minister also stressed on accelerating the recruitment process against vacant posts. However, he added that these recruitments must be made through a testing agency to ensure merit. He also directed to install modern equipment in the seven District Headquarters Hospitals (DHQs) and four Tehsil Headquarter Hospitals (THQs) of the merged tribal districts.
During the meeting, the chief minister was briefed on the progress made in the health sector of NMTDs. Of the 1,108 different healthcare facilities established in the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata), only 869 are operational, while 239 remain closed. However, efforts were underway to reopen the remaining units.
The meeting was told that several uplift schemes for the health sector in NMTDs have been included in the Accelerated Implementation Plan (AIP) and the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for addressing deficiencies in the DHQs and THQs of the seven merged tribal districts.
The rehabilitation of basic infrastructure in DHQs and secondary hospitals, provision of standard medical and non-medical equipment, provision of quality medicines and recruitment of staff have also been included in AIP projects.
CM Mahmood directed that all on-going projects in the health sector should be fast-tracked to provide health facilities to people of the merged districts.
The chief minister was further informed that recruitments on 200 posts, from basic pay scale (BPS) grade I to BPS-15, and 100 posts of medical officers, was under process. Mahmood sought realistic timelines for when these recruitments will be completed.
Moreover, as many as seven district monitoring officers and data collection assistants were posted in December 2018 for the monitoring health facilities of in the merged districts. Observations and reports of these officers for the 555 visits to 161 health facilities, Mahmood was told, had helped point out various deficiencies in the health care set up in these areas.
However, owing to the limitation of the staff, the Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) had approved a revised project concept-I (PC-I) for the appointment of 60 DMOs and DCAs through the National Testing Service (NTS).
The candidates are being shortlisted and the process is expected to be completed by the end of January 2020.
The meeting was further told that Rs.10.019 billion have been allocated for the health sector of merged areas under the accelerated implementation plan while Rs1.759 billion has been allocated for 76 schemes under ADP. Of these, 17 schemes are due to be completed soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2019.
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