PESHAWAR, July 16: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department, which recently appointed a focal person for coordinating the PTI-led health reforms programme with the relevant working group, says it has only recently formed four teams to improve patients’ care, which should be taken into consideration by the government.
“The government has so far not taken into confidence the office of director general (health services), which is supposed to implement health reforms,” said one of the senior officials associated with the preparation of the reforms plan in health department.
He said the officials had burnt the midnight oil to draft the plan two months.
According to the officials, the department had sought formation of four groups to look into the issues of streamlining of human resources, including provision of career structure to doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff.
They said strengthening of the health regulatory authority was another vital measure, which was required to check sale of fake and spurious drugs and form concrete cases against the culpable people.
The officials said the authority would be responsible to supervise the operations of diagnostic laboratories, x-ray plants, private clinic and hospitals, and would check the standards of all outlets providing healthcare.
They said the health reforms agenda prepared in collaboration with health sector reforms and research unit also proposed revamping of health foundation and strengthening of the district headquarters hospitals and putting in place referral system for patients.
The officials said steps for management and academic development of the personnel of the department had been suggested in the programme lying with the chief minister’s secretariat for approval.
They said it was designed to utilise around 50,000 employees of the health department for the betterment of health delivery in the province.
When contacted, Dr Anees Akhtar, additional secretary at the health department, who is coordinating the reforms agenda with the working group, said they would prepare a draft of reforms by July 25 before taking it to the highest level for discussion.He said the draft would be subject to changes as health was a complex issue that required a broader approach.
“The vision for reforms is very clear. We had a meeting with members of the reforms group in Islamabad last Sunday where it had become clear that we wanted,” he said.
According to Dr Anees, four major groups of experts have been formed to propose reforms in the areas of their respective specialties. However, there is no estimate at this stage about the cost to be incurred on the reforms agenda.
He said the agenda also included immediate actions where required.
Meanwhile, officials at the directorate of health services said the PTI-led working group shouldn’t ignore the programme they had drafted.
“There is a lot in that draft. The government should not let it go to waste because it is very comprehensive draft,” an official said.
He said they had already begun some reforms programme, which should to be supported.
“For the success of reforms, political interference should end. PTI should let professionals work,” he said.