Quetta - August 7, 2015 : Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar said we have brought to the attention of the Provincial Government to ensure that Polio campaigns are of the highest quality and that special attention must be paid to the three key districts Quetta, Killa Abdullah, Pishin that have consistently reported Polio virus transmission. We shared with the Provincial Government our concern that of the 12 highest risk districts for Polio in the country, 4 districts are from Balochistan. Provision of foolproof security for Polio teams and the need for efforts to hire more female workers was emphasized. I and my team have assured the fullest support to the Balochistan Government in their efforts to eradicate Polio.While She was addressing Joint Press Conference with Health Minister Balochistan today
Minister said, Routine Immunization was another area of focus during my visit. Unfortunately despite the availability of resources, there is an urgent need to improve access to immunization services against nine deadly diseases of children. Though there have been concerns that Balochistan remains way behind other provinces in coverage of routine immunization, we are confident that things are moving in the right direction now. I am happy to see that Effective Vaccine Management assessment has been done in Baluchistan which demonstrates that immunization supply chains is facing many challenges in storage, distribution, handling, management and stock control of vaccines and supplies at all levels which result in frequent stock-outs, inadequate cold chain capacity. As a first step in the process a Vaccine Management Improvement plan has been developed. Baluchistan Government has already allocated 700 million Rupees for immunization. 6000 Community Health Volunteers will be engaged to improve immunization coverage in low coverage Union Councils by distributing vaccination cards, giving polio drops to eligible children and advocating with the community on routine immunization. Baluchistan has developed PC-1 for EPI including foreign funding through National Immunization Support Program amounting to 9,217 million Rupees. The federal and Provincial Governments have agreed to work in close coordination to ensure that the uninterrupted supply of all vaccines to the Province continue and that the coverage is upscaled on urgent basis.
She said, We had detailed discussion on Prime Minister’s National Health Insurance Program. In accordance with vision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this land mark program is striving to provide a cash less scheme for the poor people of Pakistan to access needed health care services Through this scheme poor families will be provided with free of cost health insurance to access health care services including priority disease treatment free of charge. The districts of Baluchistan included in first phase of the program are Quetta, Loralai, Lasbela and Kech. A total of 244,810 families of Baluchistan will benefit from this scheme. Each province will have its program specific Project Management Units whose main responsibility is to provide support in enrolment of the families, hospital empanelment, service delivery, monitoring and trouble shooting in all phase of program implementation. Government of Baluchistan has allocated 450 million Rupees for provincial Prime Minister’s National Health Insurance Program which includes costs for secondary care premium and establishment of provincial Project Management Unit. The Ministry of National Health Services has requested one of its partner international agency to provide support to Provincial Health department in developing PC-1 of Baluchistan Health Insurance Program. The federal and Provincial Governments have agreed to work closely to fast track the implementation of this Program.
She said I discussed at length the critical need to develop a National Vision or a National Policy Framework for Health. As you are aware, after 18th amendment, implementation in the area of health is a provincial subject. The federal government is providing support in terms of inter-provincial coordination, planning, standardization and regulation, international collaboration and resource mobilization. Since diseases do not know borders, there is a need for closer collaboration amongst the provinces and federal government. We have agreed to accelerate work on developing a national health vision document that provides broad guidelines and sets standards. For this purpose a core team has been constituted.