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| June 28, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1426 |
Plan to regulate use of alternative medicine: Homoeopathic dispensaries to be set up in July
PESHAWAR, June 27: The provincial government will set up homoeopathic dispensaries and other centres for alternative medicine in all 24 districts of the province next month. “We are conducting interviews and, hopefully, these dispensaries will start operating in the second week of July,” said an official at the directorate of health. He said that the decision to start these dispensaries had been taken in view of the fact that a vast majority of people turn to homoeopaths and hakims for treatment.
The official said the government had allocated Rs37.5 million for a three-year project in the annual development programme.
The performance and usefulness of these outlets would be constantly monitored and evaluated on a yearly basis, he said. In each of the 24 districts, he said, a tabib and a homoeopath would be appointed in BPS-16 and both will be assisted by a dispenser and a ward orderly.
He said that the government wanted to regulate the use of alternative medicine, so that more people could derive benefits from it.
The health official disclosed that the directorate had received about 900 applications and that the final process of selection would get underway on Tuesday when the interviews of doctors and other staff would take place.
Initially, the dispensaries will be set up as part of a pilot project. But if things go right, the dispensaries will form part of a permanent department, resulting in the induction of more homoeopathic doctors, hakims and other staff on a regular basis.
He said that alternative medicine had gained so much popularity in recent years that even the World Health Organisation (WHO) had begun to recognise its importance. The WHO, he said, had been asking member countries to introduce alternative medicine so that their health delivery networks could be expanded.
Officials said that arrangements had been made to create a special cell in the office of the NWFP’s director-general of health services, adding that two assistant directors one each for homoeopathic and tib would be appointed in BPS-17 who would monitor and evaluate the functioning of these outlets.
A committee has been working under the DG health services to sort out modalities about the implementation of the project. The government is also planning to establish more colleges for homoeopathy and Tib in the province, he said. This step will encourage homoeopaths and Tabibs and more youngsters would seek admission to colleges.
According to him, the average person found alternative medicine to be cheap and affordable. To make the private practice of homoeopaths and tabibs more effective, the newly-established Health Regulatory Authority has been directed to register all the outlets in the private sector.
Only those clinics registered with the Pakistan Tib Council and Homoeopathic Council will be allowed to operate while the unauthorized ones will be shut down, he said, asking all the homeopaths and Tabibs to get themselves registered.
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