PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has approved new organisational structure of the Directorate General of Health Services to enhance the working capacity of the health department and ensure efficiency in administrative and operational matters of health service delivery outlets.

The approval was given during a meeting held here with chief minister in the chair, said a press release issued here on Sunday. Besides Provincial Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Health Secretary Imtiaz Hussain Shah, Finance Secretary Aatif Rehman, Director General Health Services Dr Niaz and other relevant officials attended the meeting.

Under the new organisational structure, additional directors general will be posted at the regional level and deputy directors at divisional level besides certain changes in some of the administrative positions in the office of Director General Health Services.

The new posts of additional director general south, additional director general centre, additional director general Hazara and additional director general Malakand have been added to the existing structure of the Directorate General Health Services.

Similarly, a new post of deputy director for each division under the regional additional director general has also been created. Posting against the newly created positions at regional and divisional level will be made from amongst the existing strength of the directorate and no fresh hiring will be made for the purpose.

The regional and division level setup is aimed at improving health services delivery in healthcare facilities at district level by ensuring effective monitoring of these healthcare facilities, improving their day to day management and enhancing their capacities up to the desired level.

The meeting was told that additional directors general to be posted at regional level would be responsible for recruitment, transfers, postings and promotions of health employees up to BPS-15 at regional level. They will act as reporting officers for the district health officers and medical superintendents in their respective regions. They will be empowered to take disciplinary action against any employee at regional level.

Availability of medical equipments, close liaison with health management committees of individual healthcare facility, implementation of prescribed quality standards in services delivery in hospitals, cleanliness and waste management, identification of issues at hospitals and their timely solution, preparation of action plans for hospitals in consultation with medical superintendents and its implementation and submission of regular reports to the high-ups regarding the performance of hospitals in their respective regions will be the main responsibilities of additional directors general.

The meeting was informed that after the extension of Sehat Card Plus Scheme to entire population of the province, there was a significant increase in the admission ratio of patients in government hospitals.

It was informed that inter-hospital referral of patients had also improved significantly after the health department’s ambulance service was handed over to Rescue 1122.

Regarding the steps taken to increase the capacity of hospitals for coronavirus patients, the meeting was informed that during the last two weeks, the number of high dependency unit and intensive care unit beds in government hospitals was increased by 766.

During the last one month, testing capacity for coronavirus suspects was increased by 5,000 tests daily and at present 9,000 tests were being conducted in the province on a daily basis.

Addressing the meeting, the chief minister termed strengthening of health sector as the top priority of his government. He said that government was taking result-oriented steps to strengthen the healthcare system and all available resources were being utilised for the purpose.

The chief minister directed the officials to pay special attention to strengthening the healthcare system at the grassroots level so that primary and secondary healthcare facilities were available to the people at local level and pressure of patients on tertiary care hospitals could be reduced.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021