LAHORE: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has offered technical support to the Punjab Health Department for development of Human Resources for Health (HRH).

The offer was extended during a meeting of a WHO delegation with Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid here on Saturday.

WHO delegation leader Dr Jamshed Ahmad introduced to the minister with Dr Mario Roberto Dal Paz, an expert of international repute on health workforce planning, who would be assigned task to establish HRH Observatory for Punjab. He would also help in finalizing the HRH profiling 2018 besides recommendations for provincial HRH strategic framework. The draft Punjab health workforce strategy, being technically vetted by Dr Mario Roberto Dal Poz, was also presented during the meeting.

Dr Yasmin informed the delegation that achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) was a key priority identified by Punjab’s new government. She said that the Punjab government was focusing on engaging with the general physicians and was improving the preventive and primary healthcare for achieving UHC. Maternal and neonatal child health, family planning and nutrition would be atop the priority, she said while reiterating the government’s commitment towards addressing health workforce deficits in the province.

Thanking Dr Mario and WHO for their technical assistance towards a scientific review of the health workforce strategy documents for Punjab drafts before finalization, she said that Punjab government was committed to lead other provinces for formulation of their health strategy. Punjab being the trail blazer would be sharing its learning and experiences with other provinces and would be guiding them through development of their health workforce strategies.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2018