January 29, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 19, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 28: The Sindh health department plans to enhance allocation to the health sector in the budget besides increasing the number of doctors and paramedical staff at public sector hospitals across the province.

This was stated by the provincial (caretaker) Minister for Health, Fauzia Lari, at a seminar on First Professional Maternal Mortality Conference, organised by the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Care and the Sindh Lady Health Workers Programme in collaboration with UNFPA here on Monday.

“The Sindh government will increase the number of doctors and other medical staff at hospitals. I would use my powers to lift the ban on recruitment of new doctors and more doctors will get jobs in my tenure,” she declared.

Earlier, speakers at the conference citing a recent survey pointed out that many districts like Badin, Thatta and Mirpurkhas were facing shortage of doctors and paramedics, especially lady doctors. The district hospitals of Dadu and Tando Mohammad Khan have no lady doctor.

Special Secretary Health Capt (Retd) Abdul Majid said that a plan was being chalked out for an increase in the allocations for health facilities and medical staff.

He said a minimum of four trained midwives would be made available to every taluka hospital whereas a blood bank and a labour operation theatre would be established at every district hospital. He called for World Bank assistance in conducting a survey regarding the quality of health service in the province.

The conference focused on maternal mortality ratio in Pakistan, especially Sindh, and proper planning to reduce it.

Dr Sadiqua Jafary said that survey and research in this regard was based on where, when and why cases of mother mortality took place in Sindh.

The conference was told that Karachi had a maternal mortality ratio higher than that of Dhaka and some other developing countries. A large numbers of DCOs, EDOs, health officials, besides representatives of WHO, Unicef and family planning department, attended the conference.—PPI