QUETTA: The Chief Executive Officer of the Peoples Primary Healthcare Initiative, Balochistan, Aziz Ahmed Jamali, has said that the PPHI is employing modern technology to ensure delivery of better healthcare services to people and making 761 Basic Health Units (BHUs) operational across the province.

Talking to journalists here on Wednesday, he said that the BHUs working under the PPHI were providing primary health services and free of cost medicine to the people.

With the approval by Chief Minister Jam Kamal, 108 BHUs were added to the PPHI network in 2020 while work was under way to increase the numbers of BHUs in the province, Mr Jamali said.

He said that PPHI was also involved in vaccination against preventable diseases — including polio, tetanus, flu, hepatitis, measles, whooping cough, pneumococcal disease and rotavirus — and 70,789 children were vaccinated in 2020. As many as 57,964 malnourished children were screened last year.

He said that the PPHI was paying special attention to mother and child health (MCH) and had established 150 labour rooms in BHUs of different districts. The PPHI was also providing special MCH services through Hub and Spoke Model in Khanozai tehsil, Pishin district, he added.

Mr Jamali said that in far flung areas like Duki, Gwadar and Washuk, the PPHI was providing health services through telehealth system and since July about 6,000 patients had been examined by specialist doctors at six telehealth clinics. During the current year, telehealth services will be introduced in Musakhail, Sherani, Surab, Kachhi, Panjgur and other districts.

He said that the Medical Emergency Response Centers (MERC) project had been launched to rescue people in case of a traffic accident. Since October 2019, MERC rescuers have saved lives of 14,000 injured on major highways of Balochistan.

Despite financial constraints, the PPHI was continuing the MERC project because saving lives was its top priority, he added.

The PPHI had also established a training institute for capacity building of paramedics and in this connection refresher courses would be arranged soon, Mr Jamali said.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2021