PESHAWAR, March 10 The federal government has decided to raise salaries of lady wealth workers to attract educated women. Releasing findings of an internal assessment survey of the National Lady Health Workers programme on Monday, project`s provincial coordinator Dr Inamullah Khan said the low ratio of education among health workers was affecting the programme.

The survey was conducted last year to evaluate performance of lady health workers and take measures accordingly to improve their performance. About 1,344 health workers were interviewed in 18 districts in Punjab, 12 in Sindh, 13 in Balochistan, and 12 in the NWFP and two tribal units in the Federally Administered Tribal Area.

The findings showed that 45 per cent of lady health workers were in the age group of 18 to 40 years and two-thirds or 70 per cent of them were married. Of them, 40.6 per cent had received middle level education, 44.7 per cent were matriculate and 10.9 per cent had done intermediate.

With regard to their knowledge in antenatal care, the highest percentage of 25.2 was reported from the NWFP and Fata, followed by Punjab with 11.7. About family planning, health workers in the NWFP and Fata were more knowledgeable than in the rest of the provinces. Eleven per cent of health workers in Balochistan had knowledge about family planning. Their overall level of knowledge regarding diagnosing diarrhoea and dehydration was also not good.

Fifty-eight per cent of those interviewed had knowledge about acute respiratory infection and pneumonia and 34 per cent could diagnose cough and cold. Eighty-five per cent were able to diagnose anaemia and 80 per cent were good when asked about immunisation and importance of early breastfeeding.

Almost all the health workers had received basic training and 98.5 per cent had taken refresher courses. Over all, 75 per cent of them had received refresher training in nutrition and antenatal services three or more than three times. Of them, 93.7 per cent possessed the basic training manual.

The findings revealed that 98 per cent of health workers regularly attended monthly meetings and they were accessible by their supervisors. It showed that the government had to appoint women with lower qualification in some areas because people there were reluctant to allow their women to work. In Kohistan, Shangla and Kala Dhaka, no health worker had acquired middle level education due to which women with primary or even lesser qualification had been recruited.

Dr Inamullah said the findings would be used to improve performance of lady health workers.

He said the government in collaboration with the Allama Iqbal Open University planned to provide distance education to women and hire their services as health workers, especially in Shangla and Kohistan districts of the NWFP and Kala Dhaka in the Provincially Administered Tribal Area.

In view of the survey, he said, the federal government had decided to announce a proper service structure for lady health workers, besides raising their salaries and providing them with free medical facilities in government hospitals.