KP minister dissatisfied with DHOs performance

PESHAWAR: Provincial Health Minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah has expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the district health officers (DHOs).

He said while presiding over the Provincial Outbreak Committee meeting on Monday, according to an official statement issued by the Health Department. Besides others, Secretary Health Mahmood Aslam Wazir, Commissioner of Peshawar Riaz Khan Mahsud, Special Secretary Polio Programme Abdul Basit, Additional DG Administration Dr. Siraj, Director EPI Dr. Arif, Director Public Health Dr. Irshad Roghani, and Director IMU Dr. Ijaz attended the meeting.

All district health officers and medical superintendents attended the meeting online. Instructions were issued to start cutting the salaries of vaccinators if they were not able to present during vaccinations.The minister said epidemics would not occur if routine things were done in time. He emphasised the need to make routine immunization more effective and to activate vaccine centres.

A new system is being introduced to track vaccinators, and action will be taken against those who do not perform their duty. It was reported to the health minister that district outbreak committees had been formed in all the districts of the province.

Initial meetings have been conducted in the relevant districts to activate these committees. The minister said the purpose of the Provincial Outbreak Committee was to provide an immediate response during any outbreak.

“The committee will meet twice a month to review the performance, and the ongoing outbreaks and their responses will also be evaluated in these meetings,” he added. Earlier in the meeting, the minister was briefed on routine immunization and statistics.

He was informed about the prevalence of diseases like measles, typhoid, deptheria, dengue, malaria, etc in the province. In the next meeting, geographical coverage, attendance of vaccinators, and the effectiveness of vaccine centres will be reviewed.

The secretary Health Secretary warned the DHOs to focus on routine immunization, vaccinator attendance, and the effectiveness of vaccine centres, and to improve performance within two weeks. Any NGO or donor providing support in the districts was directed to inform the Directorate General office before providing support so that mapping could be done.