PESHAWAR, Jan 7: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government restored the post of district health officer and brought district health system under the direct control of the director-general health services, officials said.

They said that after implementation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2012, the nomenclature of executive district officer (EDO) health had been changed to district health officer (DHO) and a notification to that effect was issued a week ago.

Following the implementation of Local Government Ordinance 2001, the district health system along with 13 other departments had been brought under the direct supervision of the district coordination officers (DCOs) in all districts.

After repealing the old law by the provincial assembly last year, the health department was trying to take control of the district health system.

Officials said that district health system would work under proper hierarchy by keeping liaison with the provincial health department, which would guide the districts regarding implementation of the health policy.

Under the previous system, which remained in place for over a decade, the district health delivery network had become redundant as DCOs, who were supposed to look into functioning of the department, lacked technical know-how of health matters and in the process district health had suffered a great deal.

“Now, we are implementing a restructured district health system with main focus on improving patients care at primary and secondary care levels,” officials said.

They said that previously each district had five coordinators, who looked after as many health programmes but they weren’t responsible to the director-general health office. They were supervised by DCOs, who couldn’t judge their performances owing to their preoccupation with other activities, they said.

“Now, the number of coordinators has been raised to six and all of them will be answerable to DHOs. For example, the coordinators of expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) will lead immunisation activities in the respective districts and will report to EDOs, who will be required to present their performance to the director-general health,” officials said.

After the enforcement of the new system, the director-general office would judge performance of all coordinators and write their annual confidential reports.

“The performance-based promotion of coordinators and other employees is the hallmark of the new system that will improve patients care,” officials said.

The duty of coordinators has clearly been described in the new system. “A new post of finance coordinator has been created to examine the expenditure of money for different programmes. The financial coordinators will be responsible for budgetary affairs and will report to DHOs,” officials said.

They said that EDO would be assisted by a deputy in every district to look after the management of health facilities and patients care there.

“The new system seeks clarity of power among DHOs and director-general health as the former will require help of latter in matters relating to patients care,” they said.

Under the old system, the provincial district health information system coordinators reported a few diseases to EDOs but now they will be required to dispatch reports about diseases’ prevalence to the health department on monthly basis.

“These reports will be used in devising curative and preventive programmes,” officials said.

They said that transfers and postings of EDOs would be the exclusive power of director-general health against the previous system wherein DCOs performed similar functions. “Now the health department will appoint and transfer EDOs, their deputies and coordinators,” they said.

Officials said that according to the new system Class-IV employee would be transferred within the same district while Grade 17 and above employee would be transferred from one district to another.