July 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1429

KARACHI, July 7: Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmed told the executive district officers (health) on Monday that they must seek approval from him or the Sindh health secretary before recruiting health staff at their level.

The minister was speaking to the EDOs (health) from all over the province in his office. This was the first meeting of its kind between the new health minister and the EDOs, who were also joined by senior officials of the Sindh health department, including Shafiq A. Khoso, the secretary, and Dr Shafqat Abbasi, the special secretary.

Sources privy to the meeting said the minister pointed out to the EDOs that district nazims, DCOs or any other political quarters had nothing to do with the appointments of employees and the EDOs should send all cases of appointments to the Sindh health department for authorisation.

Dr Saghir said that during the recruitment process, the district nazim, the DCO and relevant elected representatives should be taken into confidence but a final decision would rest with the health department, said a handout.

The EDOs told the minister about the shortage of staff at a large number of health-care centres, hospitals and health units and dispensaries due to the restriction on recruitment. The officers said the government had made a special allocation to meet the sanctioned new expenditures pertaining to health centres across the province in the last financial year, but no progress on the ground could be seen.

The EDOs also complained about the shortage of equipment and other medical essentials and logistical support and urged the health minister to ensure the flow of funds and procurement of hospital needs on top priority so that relief could be given to the common man.

On the anti-polio campaign, the minister said it was not being taken up seriously and donor agencies and foreign diplomats had also expressed their reservations on this issue. “There is a need to work on a war footing,” the minister said.

The EDOs were also asked to immediately start an anti-malaria campaign with the advent of the monsoon. Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Dr Saghir Ahmed said that vacancies of doctors, paramedics and other staff in grade one and above fell in the domain of the Sindh health department and appointments needed to be centralized under the command of the department and the EDOs – who might take guidance from the nazims or other relevant persons – were required to report finally to the health department before issuing appointment letters.

He said strategies would be finalised to utilise the maximum available staff in health centres province-wide, particularly in the rural areas, and fresh appointments would also be made.

He was of the view that health facilities had been developed in the past on the demands or discretion of parliamentarians without taking practical needs and problems of the people into consideration, and that was why many of them remained non-functional. However, he added that such facilities would now be made operational.

He said that to avert any major crisis in the wake of a dengue fever outbreak after the monsoon, he had asked the EDOs of the districts which had been reporting a high number of the cases previously to take special measures. “The EDOs in Karachi and Hyderabad would specially ensure the availability of dengue test kits and supply of mega blood units in their jurisdictions for the benefit of citizens,” the minister added.

He said the Sindh government had allocated Rs5 billion in its budget on the count of hepatitis and now the EDOs had been asked to submit relevant proposals at the earliest so that a comprehensive prevention and cure programme could be charted out.