PESHAWAR, Oct 10: Health Minister Inayatullah has stressed the need for strengthening the healthcare delivery system at the district level to reduce burden on health institutions of big cities.

He was speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural session of a one-day workshop on 'Performance of District Health Management Teams' here on Friday. He said that there was a need for capacity building of district health managers and local government representatives.

Representatives of district governments, NGOs, health EDOs of the selected districts and officials of the Women Health Project participated in the workshop. Federal director of the project coordination unit, Shaheen Masood and project director of women health project, NWFP, Dr Khurshid also addressed the workshop.

The minister deplored that hasty devolution of power had adversely affected the healthcare system at the district level. "Health directorate and EDO health offices were just boosters of information in the new system", he asserted.

To overcome this problem, the minister suggested proper distribution of power and delegation of authority to quarters concerned to create a sense of ownership. Expressing dissatisfaction over the management of health system, he stressed the need for proper training of health personnel for collecting and maintaining essential health data.

Commenting on the performance of women health project, the minister called for evolving a proper system to evaluate the project's achievements. Terming the workshop as fruitful, the minister expressed the hope that the participants would come up with effective ways to monitor the healthcare system.