Mother, Child Indicators’ improvement priority: Dr Yasmin Rashid

LAHORE:Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid while chairing a meeting here on Monday said that the performance assessment of every district shall be made on cumulative number of patients at all health facilities.

The Health Minister reviewed the performance of Punjab Health Facilities Management Company (PHFMC) at the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department. She said that performance of every official will be evaluated with respect to the number of patients, attendance of health professionals, availability and provision of medicines and awareness on family planning.

Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Captain (r) Usman Younis, MD PHFMC, Arshad Usmani, Prof Javed Ch, Azim Naqvi and officers of PHFMC from all districts were also present in the meeting.

Punjab Health Minister said the objective of enhancing the scope of Mobile Health Units was to ensure provision of healthcare services to far-flung areas. Improvement in Mother and Child Indicators is our key priority area and no compromise shall be made on these targets.

The process of hiring must start immediately at PHFMC facilities. There is urgent need to improve the performance of the PHFMC in all districts where it is working. The government is specially focused on improving healthcare services in Lahore. We are initiating a thorough review of the quality and scale of services being provided by PHFMC.

The minister said that Government has added a work force of 32,000 healthcare professionals in the department. ‘When we took over, Punjab hospitals were working on 50 per cent of their capacity’. The number of Filter Clinics will be increased and the officers not showing satisfactory performance shall face strict action. The process of immunization in all districts will be improved. The performance evaluation of Lady Health Workers shall be made on the number of referrals. Our focus is on improving service delivery in Public Sector Hospitals and encouraging common man to seek treatment form these facilities, she said.

Later, Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Captain (retd) Usman Younis said that no laxity will be tolerated in the performances and services and Basic Health Units or Rural health Center especially related to availability of facilities, shortage of medicines or carelessness in treatment. The performance of the PHFMC is being reviewed in all districts, he said.