Renewed pledges: Imran Khan determined to improve health care in K-P

Says autonomy of hospitals essential to improve the system

PESHAWAR:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday said autonomy of hospitals is essential to improve facilities and the health care system.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with senior doctors at the Chief Minister Secretariat, the PTI chief pointed out the existing system was not up to standard. He added the provincial government planned on introducing a health system at par with the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital.

Khan met the medical practitioners to discuss the Health Care Commission bill approved by the provincial cabinet on Monday. He said under the proposed system, government hospitals would have the authority to hire and fire staff in addition to other powers. He believed the planned changes would yield positive results. The PTI chief said tens of thousands of patients visited health facilities in the province, but the existing system was inadequate.



Khan claimed all changes to the health set up were proposed after consultation with doctors, whose concerns and grievances he tried to address.

The PTI chief said the government would give doctors the chance to continue their private practice at health facilities, adding an infrastructure for such a purpose was nonexistent at this time. In a statement, a PTI spokesperson said Khan met senior doctors at the secretariat to discuss the newly-approved law. It read that doctors conveyed their grievances and problems to the PTI chief.

Khan assured the practitioners their concerns would be addressed before the bill is passed into law by the provincial assembly. He also asked K-P Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai to consult the doctors.

The PTI chief said his party was not power-hungry and wanted to devolve power to the grass-root level, adding that improvements to the health and education sectors were high on their priority list.

The meeting was also attended by K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, health minister Shahram Tarakai, law minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi, revenue minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, public health engineering minister Shah Farman Khan, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Atif Khan, Higher Education Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, other members of PTI and senior doctors from Peshawar.

A lonely struggle

The PTI chief also touched upon the problems of millions displaced by the military operation against militants in their respective areas. Khan said the K-P administration alone could not cater to their needs.

He said the federal government was extending little or no help for the three million IDPs in the province. Khan added the provincial government has decided to recruit around 400 police personnel from the displaced people who would provide security at IDP camps.

He said the K-P government intended to approach the Supreme Court to fight for the water and electricity rights of the province. The PTI chief claimed the centre was trying to sabotage his party’s government in K-P.

Khan also snubbed the Awami National Party’s (ANP) criticism of the K-P government. “They should keep quiet for three more years,” Khan said. He assured that the newly-appointed chief of the K-P Ehtesab Commission would unearth all the corruption that took place during the rule of previous governments.

The PTI chief said the construction of roads and bridges does not make a person eligible to become prime minister. “If that is the case, Malik Riaz should have been the premier.”

He concluded PTI was more concerned with improving the system rather than buildings bridges and roads.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2014.