June 07, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 6: The Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) Act is being amended bring improvements in training, accreditation and licensing of nurses, midwives and lady heath visitors (LHVs).

According to official sources, the draft of the proposed amended PNC Act had been sent to the law division for review and will be amended as soon as certain formalities were fulfilled.

Sources said these amendments would ensure representation of midwives and lady heath visitors in the council.

The women health project (WHP) of the ministry of health had been entrusted with the task of revising the act through a body of experts.

The proposed induction of a new cadre of 12,000 community midwives, under the ‘national mother and neonatal child health programme,’ propelled the need to review the existing regulatory mechanism.

The director of WHP, Shaheen Masood, said it had identified issues hampering the quality of nursing care and recommended a comprehensive framework to the government for improvement in this sector.

She said the PNC Act was being amended to strengthen and reinforce its the role and make it compatible with the future needs of the country.

She said the amendments were also aimed at bringing PNC at par with international standards.

She said there was a need for restructuring the PNC to identify gaps in the council’s ability to address issues.

Ms Masood said several others steps were being taken to improve the nursing profession, including comprehensive training and implementing a code of ethics.

She said under the women health project, training courses had been arranged for 1,239 midwives and short-term training arranged for 600 nurses.

She said WHP placed 20 public health nurses, along with vehicles and staff, in the project districts while books, computers and other equipment were provided to the School of Nursing, Poly Clinic and College of Nursing, Karachi.

She said under the project, reproductive health services were being expanded through improved quality of care and improving district health system.

She said work had been started for institutional and human resource development, behaviour change communication and social mobilisation.—APP