PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan has said that all the ongoing mega projects in health sector would be in 2019.

He said that government would appoint doctors on ad-hoc basis to overcome shortage of medics in the province.

The minister said that after approval of first health policy, the government will implement and ensure an accessible, equitable and quality healthcare through sustainable and comprehensive health system at all levels, based on the primary healthcare approach through the district health system to advance the well-being, productivity and prosperity of people.

Dr Hisham says it took five months to develop health policy

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, he said that it took five months to develop a comprehensive health policy. DFID, which is also representative of health policy advisory council, allocated Rs6.04 million pounds to the provincial government as a reward for making the policy first and the funds would be spent on strengthening 200 basic health units in the province and tribal districts.

Secretary health Dr Syed Farooq Jameel was also present on the occasion.

Dr Hisham said that health policy was meant to implement the policies that would reform and strengthen KP healthcare system, enabling it to provide essential, cost effective and quality healthcare to all its citizens and with focus on developing preventive, primary and secondary healthcare and strengthening tertiary level healthcare.

“This will ensure universal health coverage for the people based on equitable coverage, accountable, transparent, sound management and governance, results-based management, safe for patients and staff, responsive service delivery and access of essential health services especially for the poor and vulnerable,” said the minister. He added that steps would be taken to reduce the burden of diseases, especially among vulnerable segments of the population, improve human resource management and enhance health financing for efficient service delivery to the people of the province.

Dr Hisham said that through the policy, they would strengthen preventive healthcare services focusing on child immunisation, reproductive health, MNCH, malnutrition and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases. He said that the policy also focused on prevention, early detection and subsidised curative support based on lifecycle approach and continuum of care for common diseases.

The minister said that health department would address the issue of major killers in newborns and children under five years of age like diarrhoea, measles, malaria and malnutrition through integrated management strategies and would develop a programme to improve the nutrition status of children below three years and women of child bearing age.

Under the policy the department will strengthen medical and nursing education and curriculum development, promote concepts of ‘one health’ and ‘health in all policies’ through a renewed and synergistic focus on cross-sectoral action for advancing health and improving responsiveness-citizens empowerment and voice will be ensured in decision making at all levels to improve governance and accountability.

The minister said that all ongoing mega health projects would be completed in 2019. To overcome the issue of lack of doctors, government was going to appoint doctors on ad-hoc basis in the province, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2019