Health minister announces plan to form Sindh Medical and Dental Council

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho on Wednesday announced the provincial government’s plan to constitute the ‘Sindh Medical and Dental Council’. Addressing a news conference, she said a bill would be tabled soon in the Sindh Assembly for the establishment of a provincial health education regulatory council to regulate medical education and practice in the province.

“The federal government should not have dismantled the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council [PMDC] but they didn’t listen to us. Now we are fed up with this situation and we have decided to establish our own medical and dental council in the province to regulate the health profession and medical education,” she announced at the news conference that was held at the Sindh Secretariat.

Accompanied by Child Life Foundation (CLF) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ahson Rabbani, Dr Pechuho said the federal government should immediately restore the PMDC, otherwise, the provinces would be free to take their own course and would not let some individuals create trouble for doctors and medical students in the country.

Lauding the Child Life Foundation (CLF) for saving thousands of lives of children at the emergencies of various public hospitals in the province, she said they had passed the legislation for the establishment of the satellite centres of the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in other cities of Sindh. The first satellite center of the NICH would be established in Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah) very soon, she vowed.

The health minister maintained that the establishment of child health facilities in other cities of Sindh would not only reduce burden on the main NICH facility in Karachi but also ensure provision of effective medical treatment to children in their own cities.

“We are facing an acute shortage of trained manpower in the interior of Sindh but after the establishment of satellite centres of the NICH in other districts of Sindh, the issue of trained doctors and paramedics would be resolved,” she said.

Announcing that typhoid vaccine would be included in the Expanded Program of Immunisation (EPI) from the next year, Dr Pechuho urged the parents to get their children vaccinated against preventable diseases, saying it was the job of the parents to take care of their children, get them properly inoculated and ensure proper nutrition for them to save them from diseases.

“We know that there are problems at health facilities but it is the job of parents to take care of their children too and keep them away from the hospitals. This can easily be done by vaccinating them, as these vaccines are being given to the children free of charge,” she said, adding that thousands of children die annually in Sindh, whose lives could be saved by vaccinating them properly.

Responding to a query regarding the shortage of medicines, she said the procurement committee for the purchase of medicines was an independent body and she could not interfere in its affairs.

She, however, added that the committee had started the process for the procurement of medicines. To a query about the dengue outbreak, she said it was a nationwide outbreak that had affected the entire country. She informed the media that from the next year, the Sindh government would be implementing a strategy to contain and prevent dengue.

Earlier, the CEO of the CLF, a partner of the Sindh government in running the children emergency rooms at public hospitals, said in his presentation that his organisation had saved more than 2.7 million lives in the last eight years.

“Sindh government’s commitment has paved the way for development of better health infrastructure for people of Sindh. Since the project began in Karachi, the children of Karachi have access to world-class emergency services within 30 minutes from their location,” he claimed.