22 January 2004	Thursday	29 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 21: Almost all district health departments of Sindh are yet to formulate a health plan to utilise maximum funds, approved in the Annual Development Plan.

In the absence of district health plans, funds earmarked each year for health sector either get lapsed or are utilised for irrelevant purposes. Sources in the Sindh government said that district health management teams, formed to improve the performance of health departments, are also not functioning properly as meetings of these teams are not being held regularly.

The Sindh health department has chalked out policy guidelines for devising district health plans, but the district health departments are not following them as well, sources said. The sources said the executive district officers of health department had failed to motivate their subordinates.-PPI