On the directives of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Health Advisor Ehtesham Ali, Rs440 million has been released to clear three months' pending salaries of over 4,500 employees of the Integrated Health Program (IHP).
In his statement, the Health Advisor assured that all employees would receive their salaries before Ramazan.
He instructed the relevant authorities to ensure timely transfers of payments to employees' accounts without delay.
Emphasizing the need for reforms to streamline project operations, he stated that no employee's salary would be withheld.
"There is no place in my team for those who cannot deliver," he asserted. Expressing concern over frequent salary delays and protests for project extensions, Ehtesham Ali directed officials to begin preparations for the upcoming budget immediately.
He urged consultations with stakeholders to ensure efficient financial planning and prevent such disruptions in the future.
The advisor further stated that the next Annual Development Program (ADP) would include only those schemes that enhance service delivery and benefit the public, rather than launching unnecessary new projects.
Background
In December 2024, The Express Tribune reported that IHP, jointly managed by the Lady Health Workers (LHWs) program and the nutrition initiative, faces severe financial constraints, hindering its effectiveness.
Official sources said that both programs have fallen short of their targets due to insufficient funding.
Approximately 4,000 IHP employees have gone without salaries for the past five months, receiving payment only once during this period, according to a health department official.
Introduced in 2014 across all four provinces, the IHP underwent challenges after the 18th amendment, requiring individual provinces to create their PC-1 plans.
The previous government's Rs7.5 billion PC-1, developed by consultants from Punjab without a baseline survey, displayed numerous shortcomings, including the delayed recruitment of Lady Health Workers and trained community midwives over four years.
Despite completing their two-year training, these midwives remain unutilized, incurring significant costs to the health department, supported by international donor organizations. Additionally, LHWs and CMWs lack access to government-provided medicines.
The IHP's primary goal is to reduce maternal deaths during childbirth from 165 per 1,000 to 40. Stabilization centers face similar challenges, with no available food supplements despite the declared nutrition emergency in the province. Only Unicef is currently providing food supplements to select districts, while the government struggles to recruit nutrition specialists and purchase food supplements due to financial constraints.
Targets for underweight childbirths have been substantially missed, raising concerns about the project's overall efficacy.
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