KARACHI, March 2: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan directed the authorities concerned to conduct special campaign every month against infectious diseases in the province on the lines of the anti-polio drives.

He ordered this while chairing a meeting at the Governor’s House on Thursday, in which senior officials of the health department briefed him about the overall health conditions in the province.

The governor said that the health department should work in this regard utilizing all the available facilities and resources. This would not only provide health facilities to the common man at his doorstep but also help evaluate the working capacity of the department, he added.

Dr Ibad stressed the need for taking immediate and practical steps in the field of telemedicine.

He said that through the facility of telemedicine, people living in far-flung areas could easily access specialists posted in big cities.

The governor pointed out the need for activating Basic Health Units (BHU) in the rural areas of Sindh as it was quite cumbersome for the people of those areas to go to the cities for medical aid.

Dr Ibad exhorted the authorities for posting of specialists in the rural areas on weekly basis besides their stay at Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur which would prove beneficial to the rural population.

The health secretary informed the governor that the shortage of doctors was one reason for their non-posting in remote areas.

The governor observed that BHUs could be made functional in the rural areas with the assistance of NGOs and access to health and medical facilities by common people could be made possible with public-private sector cooperation.

He called for preparing a policy for organizing medical camps and screening system at the district levels on a monthly basis. He said this should be advertised as “Monthly ongoing campaign”.

Dr Ibad called for a comprehensive strategy for nurses training and said that there was a need to make Sindh Nursing Board functional on modern lines.

He was informed that illegal blood banks had been closed down in Sindh and during its ongoing campaign against them; the health department achieved satisfactory success against the spread of hepatitis.

Dr Ibad directed the officials to gear up the functioning of the Burns Ward in the Civil Hospital, Karachi in view of a large number of cases being referred there.

The governor called for an early establishment of a trauma centre in Hyderabad and later in other cities so that people could be provided fast medical relief.

He noted that due to the shortage of medico-legal staff and their postings in some particular hospitals, people faced a lot of inconvenience.

In order to solve this problem, Dr Ibad said that the medico-legal systems abroad should be studied and attention be focussed on points whether medico-legal staff could also be posted in private hospitals as well.

He said this should be immediately studied and a policy be designed to ensure that no lacuna remained in the system and for this purpose doctors of private hospitals be consulted.

The governor said that doctors should visit hospitals regularly and no doctor be posted in a school on permanent basis but in rotation.—PPI/APP