PESHAWAR (Dunya News) - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Adviser Lieutenant General (retd) Nigar Johar has said that efforts are underway to improve the province's healthcare system, but the private sector must also play its role in strengthening healthcare services.
Addressing a news conference in Peshawar, Lieutenant General (retd) Nigar Johar said that 42 out of every 1,000 children die during pregnancy or around the time of birth, while several mothers also lose their lives during childbirth. She stressed the need to reduce maternal mortality.
She said the shortage of hospital beds and healthcare workers was a major challenge in the province, with as many as three patients being treated on a single bed in some hospitals. She added that the growth and development of 40 per cent of children in the province were being affected.
Johar said polio had been eradicated in most parts of the world, but Pakistan and Afghanistan remained the only countries where the disease was still present. She said polio could only be eradicated through sustained and vigorous efforts against the disease.
The health adviser said primary healthcare was the government's top priority and that a digitisation process was underway to ensure transparency in the sector. She warned that the absence of digitisation could create opportunities for shortcomings and irregularities within the system.
Expressing concern over the quality of medicines, she said their standard remained a major question mark and that steps were being taken to improve it. She added that five mobile drug-testing laboratories had been provided to five divisions for collecting and testing medicine samples.
Lieutenant General (retd) Nigar Johar said 250 new doctors had been recruited recently. She pointed out that some locations where doctors were not required had three doctors appointed against a single sanctioned post, while efforts were being made to address shortages in cities where medical professionals were needed.
She also said that the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Mardan project, which was launched in 2012, had yet to be completed. Making the Khyber Institute of Child Health operational was also extremely important, she added.
Johar further highlighted maternal health concerns, saying that deaths among women from breast cancer were also an important issue. According to her, no case of breast cancer had so far been registered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
She said the province needed to expand vaccine production and strengthen training in this area.