July 31, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 30: The federal government on Wednesday proposed introduction of a system of accountability to check wastage of resources in the health sector.

This proposal was floated during a two-day Inter-Provincial Health Ministers Conference, which was presided over by Federal Minister for Health Mohammad Nasir Khan here.

Presentations were given on the status of different programmes in the health sector, while the provincial representatives apprised the federal government of the problems being faced in the implementation of these programmes.

“The strength of the health sector depends on partnership between federal and provincial governments,” Mohammad Nasir Khan said and insisted upon a system of checks and balances to ensure proper health care system to every citizen of the country. “It should be a matter of shame for us that the state resources are misused by flouting all rules,” the minister observed. “We cannot afford to compromise people’s health by wasting the resources,” he said and asked the provincial governments to strictly check inefficiencies and lethargic attitude of some government officials.

One of the participants suggested combination of the two important programmes on HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis instead of running these separately. This, he said, would help reduce the cost of the two projects. The minister also asked the provincial governments to maintain a monthly report on programmes like polio immunization.

The minister said meetings like these help us assess periodically in a scientific manner how far the BHUs (Basic Health Unit), the RHCs (Rural Health Centres), Tehsil hospitals, district hospitals, teaching hospitals and the population outlets were actually functioning.

The minister emphasized that the Polio Eradication Campaign must be given priority by the provincial governments, particularly in the high-risk areas. The minister also urged the provincial governments to give priority to routine EPI, which had been neglected.

However, the NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan suggested that instead of holding the immunization days after every few months, it should be organized twice a year in which important personalities like president, prime minister, members of parliament, Imam of different mosques, teachers, etc should be involved, while troubled areas should be identified in advance to completely focus on polio eradication.

Both the ministers of NWFP and Baluchistan Inayatullah Khan and Hafiz Hamadullah respectively asked for the logistical and technical assistance of the federal government for true implementation of the immunization programme. During the meeting, Ms Shaheen Masood, Director General Women Health Programme, complained of poor performance of Punjab and Baluchistan governments towards the women health programme and said even basic surveys had not been conducted yet. At this, Secretary Health, Punjab, Shahid Rashid said the province was improving its managerial capacities and the survey would be done within three to six months.

However, the Baluchistan minister informed the participants of the conference that it had allocated an amount of Rs22 million for this programme but said 100 per cent implementation was not possible due to logistical constraints.