216 to be trained as health master trainers

LAHORE:

Training of 216 health managers as master trainers will start form January 26.

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique on Thursday inaugurated the training programme at the Punjab Health Development Centre (PHDC).

Health Department officials say health officials would be trained at the PHDC’s office on Birdwood Road.

Health executive district officers, district officers, district coordinators of various programmes, lady health superintendents, nursing tutors, vaccinators and sanitary inspectors are among the master trainers. They will later impart training in their districts to improve the basic health management system.

PHDC Director Sohail Saqlain said the trainees had been divided in nine batches. The first batch would be trained by January 29 and the remaining by March 4, he said. Each batch will receive a three-day training. He said that in 2012 the Health Department, in collaboration with the Department for International Development, had prepared two guidelines to improve health services at grassroots level. The guidelines Essential Package for Health Services and Minimum Services Delivery Standards set some minimum standards for healthcare.

Saqlain said master trainers would help implement the guidelines. Earlier, Rafique said the government was committed to providing basic health facilities to all citizens. He said various reforms were being introduced in the Health Department.

He said said nearly 900 doctors had been posted at basic health units and rural health centres. He said 172 assistants had recently been recruited to monitor performance of health centres. He said the government had eliminated political interference in the affairs of the Health Department.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2015.