KARACHI, June 9: Governor Sindh Mohammedmian Soomro has directed that all the resources available under insurance, banking and leasing should be tapped to provide health facilities to people.

He was addressing a meeting held at the governor’s house on Saturday to review the performance of ongoing schemes in the health sector and regarding future programmes.

In order to make the performance of health department more effective, the meeting considered its restructuring.

The governor said that further steps should be taken to bring more improvement in the health facilities by employing modern methods and means. He called for giving consideration to utilization of leasing facility. He said that by procuring equipments this way, maximum facilities could be provided to people.

The governor directed that his discretionary powers should be transferred to the local government in all the departments.

He said that after the Provincial Finance Commission Award, the required financial resources would be directly available to districts, tehsils and towns.

Additional chief secretary, Shahzado Shaikh, told the meeting that the federal government had, acknowledging the health programmes in Sindh, directed the other provinces to emulate the province.

Earlier the health minister informed the meeting about the progress made by the department in the devolution process.

He said that DDO powers had been delegated and roles and responsibilities of these re-designated posts developed and circulated to all concerned. The plan for capacity building of the staff and the monitoring indicators to assess district performance had been prepared.

The secretary health gave information on the Expanded Programme of Immunization and the TB Control Program. He said while polio zero level would be achieved by December 2002, routine coverage for children and women had been raised to 48%.

He said the hepatitis immunization would be expanded to all the districts of Sindh.—APP