ISLAMABAD: Health Secretary Iftikhar Ali Shallwani has given direction to Director General Health Dr Baseer Achakzai to establish programme management units (PMUs) in all provinces.

The direction has been given after a visit of a World Bank (WB) delegation headed by Senior Health Specialist WB Supriya Madhawan. Country Liaison Pakistan Global Financing Facility (GFF) Ghazna Khalid was also part of the delegation.

It is worth mentioning here that the PMU project is of immense importance and the ministry has decided to have a specialised project management unit.

In the PMU, skilled and highly professional teams shall be hired with specific roles and responsibilities.

The team will ensure that the set and agreed objectives were achieved and all activities implemented by the provincial health departments.

A third party end of project evaluation shall be conducted to determine the set targets achieved by the team.

According to a statement, the WB/GFF team briefed the health secretary on the design and current status of the National Health Support Programme (NHSP).

“Concerns regarding the next steps were discussed such as opening of designated accounts and hiring of the PMU. The secretary committed to address these matters with the help of his team. The secretary indicated his hope that the NHSP would benefit actual communities in the target districts. The WB/GFF team reiterated that the NHSP is in support of the government’s own universal health coverage (UHC) agenda and is in direct support of the government’s health vision and is expected to bring visible change to service delivery and the country’s health indicators,” it stated.

“The secretary emphasised the need for improving the capacity of the health workforce under the programme. He also requested that a more detailed brief on the NHSP may be provided to him by the WB team in the near future,” it stated.

The National Health Services ministry spokesperson, Sajid Shah, while talking to Dawn, said Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel was very keen on improving health indicators.

“It has been decided to take all possible steps to provide medical facilities to the people,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2023