Children emergency rooms to be set up

In order to reduce infant mortality rate, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to establish specialised children emergency rooms and telemedicine satellite centers in public sector hospitals of the province.

The decision was taken at a meeting held in Peshawar under the chair of Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Khan Gandapur. Provincial Minister for Health Syed Qasim Ali Shah, Advisor to CM for Finance Muzamil Aslam, Additional Chief Secretary for Planning and Development Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, Secretary Health Adeel Shah and the representatives of Child Life Foundation attended the meeting.

Briefing the participants about the proposed program for setting up the emergency rooms and telemedicine satellite centers, it was informed that nine state-of-the-art emergency rooms and 100 telemedicine satellite centers would be established with the aim to ensure availability of quality emergency healthcare facilities to children at their door steps. The proposed emergency rooms would be equipped with modern instruments alongside 24/7 availability of specialized doctors and other paramedical staff.

It was agreed in the meeting that a memorandum of understanding to this effect will be signed between provincial health department and Child Life Foundation after the formal approval of the provincial cabinet.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister termed the establishment of emergency rooms need of the day and directed the quarters concerned for finalizing home-work for it as soon as possible and table the matter before the cabinet for formal approval.

He termed the reforms in health sector and provision of quality healthcare facilities to citizens one of the priority areas of his government and said that the incumbent government would not only encourage adoption of latest technology for this purpose but also provide required resources on priority basis.