ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services (NHS) Dr Zafar Mirza on Thursday said a number of health related programmes were affected after 18th Amendment as the law reduced coordination between the centre and provinces.

“I don’t want to blame 18th Amendment but it is a fact that under the amendment the federal ministry of health was abolished and there was a lack of coordination with provinces. In 2013, the federal health ministry was restored to look after issues,” he told a press conference at the ministry of NHS.

Dr Mirza, who was accompanied by Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, said in the recent past polio, tuberculosis, Aids and lady health workers (LHW) programmes had suffered.

Says PTI govt has decided to enhance coordination with provinces and provide them funds through Ehsas Programme

“However, the current government has decided to coordinate with the provinces and funds would also be provided to them through the recently-launched Ehsas Programme in order to provide proper health facilities to the citizens.”

He said a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Health and Population Council on Thursday was attended by ministers and representatives of the provincial governments.

“All the ministers appreciated the gesture and suggested that this forum could be utilised to share good practices and health development partner support. It was also decided that the meeting of the council should be hosted on a rotational basis in provinces and that is why the next meeting has been scheduled in Quetta after three months,” he said.

“The council meeting discussed key health issues, including strategies to enhance immunisation coverage, and agreed to set targets to achieve the universal child immunisation. It was also agreed to strengthen the LHWs programme with improvement in their working conditions and allocation of additional resources.”

Dr Mirza said it was brought into the notice of the council that a huge funding gap existed in the TB programme.

All provincial ministers were asked to enhance domestic funding and address case detection and better management of drug resistant TB.

According to estimates, 520,000 new TB cases are reported in Pakistan every year but the country is on the fourth number in terms of Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB, which has become a major challenge for the health sector.

MDR TB develops when the patient stops taking medicines without completion of the course.

Dr Mirza said the results of the national nutrition survey were recently released with a commitment to develop a consensus National Action Plan for addressing the stunting issue and convening of a nutrition conference.

“Nursing and midwifery sector was also discussed at the meeting. Areas for its strengthening were deliberated upon and PC-1 was shared with all the provinces with comprehensive plan for improving the quality and numbers of nurses and midwives,” he said.

He said efforts were being made by the government to ensure universal health coverage through development of essential health services package.

A delegation of the health ministers later called on Prime Minister Imran Khan to apprise him of the deliberations and seek his support for the health sector in prioritised areas.

The prime minister agreed in principle to provide support to the LHW programme and on the development of a health package for Balochistan besides supporting construction of a 250-bed hospital in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2019