Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Khan Gandapur has decided in principle to launch an Air Ambulance Service in the province with the aim of effectively dealing with any health emergency situation, and has directed necessary steps to ensure the practical launch of the service in four months.
He was chairing an important meeting of the Health Department here the other day. Provincial Minister for Health Syed Qasim Ali Shah, Advisor to Chief Minister on Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Amjad Ali Khan, Secretary Health Mehmood Aslam and other high-ups of the Health Department attended the meeting.
It was also decided in the meeting to launch a Motor Bike Response Unit for congested areas to ensure timely provision of emergency treatment service to people during emergencies.
Moreover, the meeting also decided to declare Hayatabad, Peshawar a Healthcare City with the aim of ensuring the provision of all types of medical treatment facilities to both domestic and foreign patients at the same place. The meeting also gave the nod to the establishment of a Health Information and Service Delivery Unit to ensure real time monitoring of service delivery at public sector hospitals of the province with the aim of improving service delivery up to the desired level.
As an important welfare initiative, the meeting also decided to start an Executive Health Checkup Program for senior citizens. Under the proposed program, citizens above the age of 65 will get free quarterly medical check-up facilities including lab tests, CT scan, MRI, Echo, ECG etc.
Separate staff and desk will be dedicated at hospitals to facilitate senior citizens in this regard. The Chief Minister has directed necessary measures to strengthen the primary healthcare system in the province, further directing them to categorize the Basic Health Units and the Rural Health Centres and ensure the availability of at least OT service, gynae service and ultrasound services with the required technical staff at these primary healthcare units.
Gandapur also directed steps to upgrade all the Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals with the aim of empowering them on the Sehat Card program and further directed them to make the DHQs of the province state-of-the-art healthcare facilities and to ensure the round-the-clock provision of quality healthcare services at these hospitals.
The Chief Minister also directed the quarters concerned to open fair price pharmacy shops in all the tertiary care and DHQ hospitals of the province and further directed the Health Department to work out all the requirements for strengthening the public sector hospitals across the province within one month so that the required financial resources could be allocated in the upcoming financial budget.
Ali Amin also ordered the finalization of a new health policy in one month to revamp the entire health sector on modern lines.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the overall performance of District Health Offices, the Chief Minister directed the relevant authorities to revisit the existing system of DHOs and come up with proposals to realign the working of these offices with the need of the hour.
The air ambulance service is expected to greatly benefit residents of far-flung mountainous districts of the province including Chitral, Dir Upper, Swat Upper, Naran, Kaghan, Shangla and Kohistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2024.
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