PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health minister Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan on Friday said powers in the health sector would be devolved to the lowest level to improve governance in primary, secondary and tertiary care systems.

He was speaking during the closing ceremony of the first public health conference organised by the Khyber Medical University -Institute of Public Health here.

Besides others, KMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Arshad Javaid, pro-VC Prof Jawad Ahmad, registrar Prof Mohammad Saleem Gandapur, Dean (public health) Prof Ziaul Haq, director (IPH&SS) Dr Naseem Khan, faculty members, students and members of the Public Health Association, delegates from the Nanjing Medical University, China, and UK, and representatives of UN agencies and ICRC also attended the event.

A statement quoted the minister as saying that regional health authorities were set up to strengthen health delivery system at the local level.

He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the first province to introduce health policy.

“It’s a great achievement,” he said adding that based on that policy, healthcare system will be improved at all levels in the province.

Praising the KMU for imparting quality education and research in various disciplines, Dr Hisham said he was impressed by the highly-qualified, foreign-trained faculty members in the field of public health.

He congratulated the KMU for establishing the new department of family medicine within the faculty of public health.

“This first of its kind diploma will empower medical officers mainly selected from among the health department’s staff members working in BHUs and RHCs across the province,” he said.

The minister asked health experts to share with the government all recommendations made during the conference about public health issues and said those recommendations would be given a serious consideration.

KMU VC Prof Arshad Javaid congratulated Dr Ziaul Haq and his team for successfully organising the event and said experts made valuable presentations and updated participants about the current public health issues.

He said the KMU being the sole public sector medical university would continue focusing on achieving academic and research excellence in all health-related fields.

Shields and souvenirs were later presented to the chief guest and foreign delegates.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2019