LAHORE: Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazir says no employee of his department will be removed from service.

The case of lady health visitors will also be considered sympathetically, he said at a ceremony arranged here to distribute orders to regularise the services of 233 contract employees of Mother and Child Health Programme (MCHP).

He said the lady health workers, employees of MCHP and lady health visitors were the backbone of healthcare and prevention programme.

“Preventing people from illness is our prime responsibility as the treatment is very costly. Prevention from disease is possible with less expenditure,” said the minister while adding that he did not allow termination from service of 1,600 security guards of basic health units (BHUs) and ensured continuation of their jobs.

Integrated Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health and Nutrition Programme (IRMNCH) Director Dr Mukhtar Hussain Syed urged the employees of MNCH to realise their duties and try to serve people in a befitting manner with a spirit of humanitarian service.

Punjab Public Health Agency Chief Executive Officer Dr Akhtar Rashid Malik said that four years ago only 44pc pregnant women and mothers came to the health facilities to the LHVs for medical checkup. “As a result of vigorous campaigns and hardworking of MNCH employees, now 84pc women are taking benefits of medical checkup from government health facilities. At present, 1,103 basic health units have been providing round-the-clock services of labour room in Punjab,” he said.

Earlier, representatives of IRMNCH Programme’s employees Mian Afzal Kamyana thanked the chief minister, both the health ministers and the secretaries for taking historical decision of regularising their services.

Meanwhile, presiding over the monthly meeting to review progress on district and tehsil headquarters hospitals’ revamping plan, the minister directed their medical superintendents to ensure compliance with Minimum Service Delivery Standards (MSDS) prepared by the Punjab Healthcare Commission.

He directed the medical superintendents to personally supervise the implementation of the revamping indicators at their respective facilities.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017