Health concerns: Committee formed to improve state-run hospitals

Minister claims older body dissolved due to poor performance.

SWABI:

A committee to look into improving conditions in state-run hospitals has been formed on the directives of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Minister for Health Shaukat Yousafzai.

This committee will take steps to overcome nepotism and corruption in the health department, the minister told The Express Tribune on Saturday. Yousafzai also claimed drastic measures would be taken to ensure better provision of health services to the residents of K-P.

He said the committee will comprise senior officials, bureaucrats, journalists, judges and experts from all walks of life. “Before, a committee formed for this exact purpose became a mafia which further worsened the state of health in the province,” alleged Yousafzai, adding the previous committee has now been dissolved for poor performance.

Yousafzai clarified the health minister and chief secretary would not be part of this body, which is also responsible for staffing employees and putting health affairs back in order. He added the department has imposed a ban on private practices of hospital registrars and senior registrars, against whom several complaints had been lodged.

Shedding light on a ban forbidding different uniforms for paramedics, the minister said health employees have been directed to comply within two weeks.



“Doctors will also have to properly ensure their attendance, and systems to this effect will start working within four days in Peshawar,” said Yousafzai. “Any doctor found telling patients to buy medicines from private shops will be taken to task.”

Yousafzai maintained the chief minister had given the health regulatory authority complete power to take steps for eradicating malpractices such as manufacture of spurious medicines.

He went on to say the information act would be brought into the provincial assembly to ensure a smooth flow of information so journalists could give details related to the health department to public. “All developments will also be uploaded on the health department’s website.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2013.