LAHORE: The Punjab Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has ordered reshuffling of polio human resources deployed in various positions in 36 districts of the province.

In a tough message delivered to district health management teams in the province, the coordinator and head of the polio programme in Punjab, Khizer Afzaal, expressed his frustration over consistent poor performance shown by the deputy district health officers and union council management officers.

The EOC coordinator instructed the provincial EOC officials to prepare a list of workers and supervisors in the polio human resource who were working on their positions for a longer period of time and ordered their reshuffling in the upcoming national inoculation campaign planned in October.

Sources in the department say the aim to shuffle polio human resources is aimed at enhancing efficiency during campaigns and moving the officials out of their “comfort zones”. They blame continuous polio virus circulation in the province on the lethargic attitude of such officials.

Poor performance being cited as reason behind the move

They say most of the reshuffling will take place in Lahore and Rawalpindi, where polio human resources have been deployed based on their linkages with top district health officials.

Meanwhile, the Punjab EOC coordinator has expressed his strong displeasure over the inefficiency of the district health officers.

In some cases, he says, the district officials refuse to go to the field and perform their duties as per their job description, compromising the quality of polio campaigns.

More than 200,000 polio human resources will be involved in the upcoming polio drive including over 150 DDHOs, 4,000 UCMOs and 16,000 area incharges.

As per the plan, the DDHOs, the UCMOs and area incharges working at tehsil, UC and area levels will be shuffled from their positions or may be shown the door.

In a correspondence to the districts, the EOC head expressed his concerns about mega cities including Lahore and Rawalpindi, calling upon the district teams to ensure that data of missed children from the last campaign is updated and made available.

He issued a warning that if any official was found to have skipped the team training, strict disciplinary action will be taken against him.

Giving instructions, the EOC coordinator stressed that chief executive officers needed to look into the teams’ composition.

Maximum number of government persons needed to be made part of polio teams. Any team member with continuous sub-optimal performance would be excluded from the campaign, Afzaal warned.

He underscored that the CEO will be responsible for improving district micro-plans quality and 100 per cent of micro-plans must be validated by the DDHOs, instructed by the EOC head.

He underlined that districts needed to learn from past mistakes and any recurrence of mistakes like repeated missed houses will not go unpunished.

The EOC coordinator put onus of increased efficiency of polio teams on the DDHOs, saying they needed to take ownership and lead the campaign every day right from the morning assembly till evening.

Mr Afzaal urged the district officials to ensure that local administration, political leaders and key influencers are engaged in the campaign inaugurations.

He reiterated that the department and government were committed to eradicate polio and it was evident from ownership of the programme by top leadership including Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024