April 04, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

KARACHI, April 3: The outgoing Sindh caretaker Minister for Health, Fauzia Laari, said that there was a need to revitalize the health care delivery system both in the public and private sectors to provide the masses with timely and cost-effective interventions on a priority basis.

She was talking to Dawn after a farewell meeting with the senior officials of the provincial health department and heads of different ongoing health programmes on Thursday.

The outgoing minister was of the view that concerted efforts were required for the uplift of the health sector. She hoped that the elected representatives would surely work to do away with deficiencies in the present health care delivery system.

Over four months back, when Ms Laari assumed the office of the health minister and visited Civil Hospital Karachi for the first time, she had said that though the time at her disposal was limited, her priority would be to address the health problems of children and mothers, particularly in the interior of Sindh where many health facilities required doctors, specialists and paramedics.

“The poverty-hit rural population is already facing several problems, including the non-availability of safe drinking water, and as such efforts should be made to resolve these issues”, she had said then.

Now she says: “We have enough bricks and mortar structures in the name of health services which badly lacked the human resources.” The province needed honest and caring health managers at all levels, she added.

The minister deplored that the required equipment at the health facilities was either faulty or there was a lack of relevant technical experts. “It is a pity that even our tertiary care hospitals and civil and district hospitals are not in a position to appoint sanitation and security staff for years”, she said.

She reiterated that doctors and paramedical staff should be made to work at health centres nearer to their place of domiciles so that patients and their relatives could be saved from the trouble of travelling to big cities, which affected them both financially and physically.

She said that authorities concerned should conduct a survey regarding the non-functional urban and rural health centres and basic health units and complaints of ghost employment.

The minister that a system for mandatory registration and monitoring of teaching hospitals, health centres and clinics run in the private sector should be placed at the earliest as number of complaints against them had also been on the rise. Many of them not only charged exorbitant fees against their services but also failed to provide the masses with quality health care.

She also stressed the need for a review of the situation pertaining to polio, HIV/Aids, hepatitis, various seasonal epidemics, waterborne diseases and the overall public hygiene and environment.