PESHAWAR, July 11: A three-phased comprehensive development plan has been chalked out to equip Fata hospitals with all facilities, including purchase of equipment and provision of essential staff at a total cost of Rs244.6 million.

This was disclosed during a briefing on state of the health facilities in Fata, held under the chairmanship of the NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah at Governor’s House Peshawar on Thursday.

The governor was informed that 585 health institutions of various nature are working in Fata which also include 6 Agency Headquarter Hospitals, 4 Tehsil level hospitals as well as 30 Civil Hospitals and 169 basic health units, besides special centre for T.B., Leprosy and dental treatment.

The upgradation of Agency Headquarters Hospital is receiving top most priority for which state of the art equipments and machineries have been arranged at a cost of Rs101.9 million whereas 55 new health institutions were added including establishment of four D-type hospitals one each at Dogar in Kurram Agency, Sarokai in South Waziristan Agency, as well as Kalaya and Ghiljo in Orakzai Agency.

It was further informed that under the President’s Inaccessible Tribal Areas Development Package, 13 new health institutions were being created in Mohmand Agency whereas 10 and 14 new hospitals would be established in the remote areas of Khyber and South Waziristan Agencies.

During the current financial year 81 new health institutions are also being created which include 9-D type hospitals and 58 community health centres. Beside this the meeting was also informed that two separate health programmes are also under implementation in Fata to eradicate Leishmaniasis parasites as well as the AIDS.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Iftikhar Hussain shah stressed the need of constant and effective monitoring system to ensure quality of work on the under implementation projects.

The governor especially mentioned the posting and new recruitments in the health services units to make it clear that there must not be a single complaint in this respect.

The entire process, he added, should be fully transparent and for this purpose proper line of action must be evolved. Similarly, he said, the appointments of doctors should be made keeping in view the required ratio of patients visiting the respective hospitals.

The governor also stressed the need of effective implementation on population control programme in Fata and said that the alarming increase in population growth in Fata require immediate attention and for this purpose an effective and comprehensive strategy should be implemented.

He asked for holding free mobile medical camps, having facilities of mobile laboratories and operation theatres, which could be easily shifted to any place in case of emergency.

Earlier during another briefing, the governor was also apprised about the re-organization, performance and responsibilities of Works & Services Department in Fata. He was further informed that the department has two separate development and planning cells each at every agency headquarters.

As far as responsibilities of the department are concerned it is fully responsible to construct as well as look after the roads networks and government buildings in Fata. It was also hoped that with the completion of re-organization process the pace of development in Fata will receive positive effects and all unnecessary hurdles will be removed.

The governor Said: “I want accelerated and result oriented development process in Fata to eliminate the deprivations of the tribal people and keeping in view the available resources there exist no justification for delay in the implementation”, he remarked.

Similarly, he also urged the need of avoiding centralization of different units at a single point and said that people must be enabled to avail facilities at root level.

He also warned that no negligence and lethargy will be tolerated in any case. In fact, he said, devolution of powers to the root level provide effective panacea to the problems of the people.

The governor also pointed out that the pace of development in Fata was greatly dependent upon the performance of Works & Services Department and to derive positive results we have to put its working in the right direction.

Secretary to Governor Sahibzada Saeed Ahmad, Secretary (Security) Fata Mehmood Shah and Senior officials of the Fata Health Department were also present on this occasion while the Director Health Fata conducted the briefing.