QUETTA: Balochistan Health Minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar on Thursday unveiled huge reforms focusing on digitisation, decentralisation and equitable service delivery to improve the province’s healthcare system.

Speaking at a press conference along with Health Department Secretary Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Panizai and spokesman for the Balochistan government Shahid Rind, Mr Kakar affirmed that now the health department will not succumb to blackmail or pressure in the process of implementing structural reforms.

“With the adoption of mid- to long-term reforms and the integration of technology, we can resolve nearly half of our health sector problems,” Mr Kakar said, adding that administrative, financial and recruitment powers are being devolved to district levels, supported by the formation of divisional level committees.

The minister said that five new health-related laws have been passed to support reforms’ implementation and monthly performance review meetings have been initiated, focusing on underperforming districts.

“A centralised command and control centre has been established to directly monitor healthcare facilities in the province,” the health minister said, adding that for years, hospitals across the province have grappled with erratic medicine supplies and uneven deployment of healthcare professionals.

He said that promotions within the health department had been stalled since 2012 largely due to internal resistance, particularly from doctors who were unwilling to serve outside Quetta and this reluctance of doctors had left people living in rural areas critically underserved.

To address this major problem, the minister said, doctors admitted to medical colleges from various districts will now be sent to their home regions to serve the masses there. The government is now also constructing residential quarters and flats in remote areas of the province to improve living conditions and encourage doctors and other medical staff’s stay at their places of postings.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2025