PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has asked Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and Khyber Medical University to ensure availability of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities in the medical colleges, institutions and hospitals prior to granting them recognition.

Sources said that health department wrote letters to both the regulators of medical education after receiving questionnaires from Lahore Registry of Supreme Court of Pakistan wherein the government was asked to inform it about the availability of clean drinking water and toilet facilities in the public and private sector medical colleges and hospitals.

Responding to the apex court’s directives, the health department wrote letters to PMDC to accord recognition to medical colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after examining their water and sanitation conditions. It requested the regulator of the medical education that it was not under its domain to take any action against medical colleges, especially the private ones, so PMDC should recognise them if they fulfilled the requirement of availability of water and toilets.

Health dept writes to regulators of medical education in light of court’s directives

A letter has also been dispatched to KMU to ensure that students of its affiliated colleges and institutions get water and sanitation facilities.

“Another question was asked by the apex court regarding the condition with regard to water and sanitation facilities in public sector hospitals of the province on which the department replied through chief secretary to address the quarry,” officials told Dawn.

Furthermore, the KP Healthcare Commission would be directed to ensure presence and supply of safe drinking water and basic sanitation at the private sector healthcare facilities and institutions.

Recounting the steps taken by the health department, it said that ‘minimum health services delivery package’ for primary health care hospitals, which was issued in August 2012, was implemented in 2014.

The package, it said, described the “adequate supply of safe drinking water and basic sanitation” as its major part to ensure that the people stay safe from the water-borne ailments.

The latter said that promotion of sanitation and quality of drinking water was the cornerstone of the package. It also included availability of toilets and appropriate garbage disposal, testing of chlorine level of water at source, testing of fecal content level of water at supply source besides promotion of hand washing.

Under the package, the facilities has been made bound to make available test kits at the hospitals to check fecal contamination as well as chlorine level of drinking water for the people and students at the hospitals and colleges.

The letter said that health department was taking measures to create awareness about problems and diseases transmitted through contaminated water. It said that the department was scaling up awareness level of people to apply brakes on the preventable diseases including illnesses caused by contamination water and unsanitary conditions.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2017