Audit of health spending underway, EDOs warned
Health officials discuss vaccination campaign, maternal care.
LAHORE:
The accounts of district health offices will be checked soon to ensure that billions of rupees meant for public healthcare are not being misused, Special Health Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar said at a meeting with health officials from each district here on Saturday.
The checking of the Nankana district health department’s accounts has been ordered and a report in this regard will be submitted within a month, said Tarar, addressing dozens of executive district officers and divisional directors at the Institute of Public Health.
Tarar directed the health officials to chalk out a monthly work plan to improve performance and then quickly implement it. “Our main focus is to improve healthcare delivery in the Punjab. The Health Department must work day and night for this,” he said.
The special health secretary directed the district officers to launch a social mobilisation campaign to encourage pregnant women to use health facilities at government hospitals. He said that the presence of female health workers or women doctors at the time of birth was necessary to bring down the maternal mortality rate.
Addressing the meeting, Health Director General Dr Nisar Cheema said that under Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s orders, delivery in labour rooms and paediatric treatment at all government hospitals at the district and tehsil levels was free. He said that the chief minister had approved a grant of Rs500 million for this.
Dr Cheema directed the EDOs to improve routine coverage under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation. He also stressed that they work hard to make the polio vaccination campaign a success. He noted that Pakistan was one of only three countries in the world where there will still some polio cases.
A representative of the World Health Organisation stressed on social mobilisation and improved training of polio vaccination teams.
Dr Aslam Chaudhry, a representative of the Bill Gates Foundation, said that Pushto-speaking health workers were being employed to administer polio drops to Pushtoon children in the Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2012.
The accounts of district health offices will be checked soon to ensure that billions of rupees meant for public healthcare are not being misused, Special Health Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar said at a meeting with health officials from each district here on Saturday.
The checking of the Nankana district health department’s accounts has been ordered and a report in this regard will be submitted within a month, said Tarar, addressing dozens of executive district officers and divisional directors at the Institute of Public Health.
Tarar directed the health officials to chalk out a monthly work plan to improve performance and then quickly implement it. “Our main focus is to improve healthcare delivery in the Punjab. The Health Department must work day and night for this,” he said.
The special health secretary directed the district officers to launch a social mobilisation campaign to encourage pregnant women to use health facilities at government hospitals. He said that the presence of female health workers or women doctors at the time of birth was necessary to bring down the maternal mortality rate.
Addressing the meeting, Health Director General Dr Nisar Cheema said that under Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s orders, delivery in labour rooms and paediatric treatment at all government hospitals at the district and tehsil levels was free. He said that the chief minister had approved a grant of Rs500 million for this.
Dr Cheema directed the EDOs to improve routine coverage under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation. He also stressed that they work hard to make the polio vaccination campaign a success. He noted that Pakistan was one of only three countries in the world where there will still some polio cases.
A representative of the World Health Organisation stressed on social mobilisation and improved training of polio vaccination teams.
Dr Aslam Chaudhry, a representative of the Bill Gates Foundation, said that Pushto-speaking health workers were being employed to administer polio drops to Pushtoon children in the Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2012.