PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has decided in principle to establish a nursing college in Dir and directed the authorities of health department to complete homework in this regard and submit final proposals for approval.
He said that keeping in view the requirement of the local population of Chitral and Dir, establishment of a nursing college was highly needed adding that establishment of college in Dir would facilitate the desiring nursing students Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Upper Dir, Lower Dir and Bajaur districts.
The chief minister has also directed the high ups of health department to ensure the clearance of all new projects of health sector reflected in the current Annual Development Program (ADP) from the concerned forum by October this year so that the projects of public welfare could be initiated well in time.
He issued these directives while chairing a progress review meeting of health department, held here the other day. Secretary Health Imtiaz Hussain Shah, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Amjad Ali Khan, Special Secretary Muhammad Khaliq and other concerned high ups attended the meeting.
The meeting reviewed in detail the progress so far made on the ongoing projects and various matters related to start practical work on the new projects. The meeting discussed in detail matters related to improve healthcare services delivery in Tehsil Headquarter Hospitals by equipping them with the required human resource, medical equipments, medicines and other facilities with the aim to ensure provision of improved healthcare facilities to the people at grass root level, and a number of important decisions were made to this end.
Highlighting the need of strengthening the Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals of the province, the Chief Minister remarked that it was imperative to strengthen these hospitals to ensure the provision of free medical treatment facilities to the people of far flung areas under the Health Card Plus Scheme at their door steps so that people would not require to travel to big cities to avail this facility.
Mahmood Khan also directed the Health Department officials to prepare SNEs as soon as possible to create new posts in these hospitals to address the shortage of doctors and other medical staff on priority basis further directing them to pay special attention to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals of the newly merged districts in order to improve the service delivery in the Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals.
The Chief Minister further directed the concerned authorities to take necessary steps to ensure the timely completion of the ongoing development projects in the health sector, especially those which are due for completion He directed the health department officials to complete the procurement of medical equipment for the newly established Fountain House Peshawar as soon as possible so that it could be inappropriate formally and hinted at the inauguration of the facility by Prime Minister Imran Khan.