PESHAWAR: The Directorate Health Services (DHS) of the newly-merged tribal districts has been merged into the Directorate General Health Services (DGHS), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the light of merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas with the province.

A notification issued by the health department said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Director General Health Services would act as the controlling officer of the merged districts while all the deputy district health officers of former Frontier Regions (FRs), had been given under the administrative control of the DHOs of adjoining districts.

So far, the health affairs of ex-FRs were managed by the director health of merged tribal districts.

Following the new directives, the deputy district health officer (DDHO) of each of the ex-FRs of Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Lakki Marwat and Peshawar will now report to the district health officer of the respective adjoining district.

The director general health of merged districts, the notification added, should report to and route all files and other communication through the office of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Director General Health Services in all official business.

KP DG health says govt trying to give better medical services to people

Copies of the notification have been sent to the relevant officers and departments.

Officials said that the merged districts had sprawling network of health facilities, but patients couldn’t be benefitted to the desired level due to absenteeism on the part of employees.

“Seven tribal districts have 9,000 employees in 979 health facilities. Of the sanctioned 108 posts of specialists, 80 are vacant. More than half of 50 sanctioned positions of women medical officers are also vacant,” the officials said. As a result, the population has been seeking treatment for minor ailments in settled districts of the province.

A few months ago, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department had issued a notification by virtue of which the directorate of health ex-Fata was brought under the control of provincial secretary health. Then Fata health directorate would report to the Fata secretariat. Now, it has been brought under the direct control of the provincial DG health.

“The move will lead to improvement in health service delivery in the tribal districts which lacked monitoring mechanism to effectively check absenteeism while the health facilities didn’t offer desired services to the people,” they said. The province has an elaborate system where it can check the absent staff and initiate action, they said.

The government also wanted to give control to the provincial DG health for proper monitoring of development activities going on there and ensuring their timely completion.

KP DG Health Dr Tahir Nadeem Khan said that it was a legal requirement after approval of merger plan by the government.

“The government is trying its best to ensure better health services to the people. Soon, there will be marked difference as we would be sending staff as well equipment and machines to improve diagnostic and treatment services there,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2020