PESHAWAR, Feb 28: NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan has urged better communication and education on public health issues to check the spread of preventable ailments.

“There is an urgent need to develop proper linkages among policy-makers and community to improve health delivery system at the grassroots level,” Mr Khan said while speaking at a seminar on “Transforming health system: Lessons from around the world”, here on Tuesday.

The workshop was organised by the health department in collaboration with the GTZ and (Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns (Paiman).

The minister said: “Once families get educated about public health problems, we would be rid of countless diseases,” he added, saying that prevention cost nothing whereas treatment cost was almost out of reach of the common man.

Dr Benjamin Lozare of Johns Hopkins University said that good communication and management should be at the centre stage of any government policy. Strong and good leadership, he said, made a marked difference as far as development of a society was concerned.

“Singapore was a developing country until 1970, but due to good leadership, its per capita income is now more than that of UK,” he said. Since mothers have to attend their homes round-the-clock, their role is more important than that of any other family member. By educating them, we can educate the entire society, he said.

Dr Benjamin emphasised that there was a need to change the existing mindset and shift the focus on educating the people at the community level. Pakistan, he said, had immense talent, but it required a shared vision to make their talent and competence felt by the society.

Speaker of the NWFP Assembly Bakht Jehan Khan, Secretary of Health Abdul Samad Khan, Director-General Health Dr Jalilur Rehman, Dr Abdul Hameed Afridi, Dr Mohammad Zaffar, Dr Fayyaz Ali, Dr Tahir Nadeem Khan, Fayaz Ahmad Khan and others also spoke.