KP only province to introduce transparency in health sector

ISLAMABAD: Although shocking figures have emerged about lack of health facilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), it also proved that the province has taken a giant leap towards transparency, a key element of good governance.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government is first provincial government in the country to introduce a comprehensive health data collection and sharing system to monitor the performance of public sector and share the information with public through internet.

It has placed all the information about closed health centres, non availability of X-ray machines and absence of doctors at key hospitals on the website of newly established Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU).

No such initiative has been taken by the Punjab, Sindh or Baluchistan government and it is extremely difficult for citizens and journalists to collect exact data about functioning of hospitals and health centres in these provinces.

KP government established IMU in 2015 to regularly evaluate performance of the public sector healthcare facilities and take measures to improve them using latest information technology. IMU staff in each of the seven divisions of KPK visits health facilities across the province and collects data through android smartphones.

The current secretary health Abid Majeed is a strong advocate of transparency and he has allowed the department to place all the "negative" and "shocking" data collected by IMU on its website for public scrutiny.

“The first step towards improving any department is to know the challenges and problems and IMU is allowing us to do so” Abid Majeed said. He said the IMU initiative has helped the health department to correct its mistakes and introduce interventions.

He said IMU is external department and directly reports to the secretary which enable it to work independently and share correct information. “The staff of IMU is supposed to visit 80 % health facilities in a division every month,” the secretary said.

The IMU officials collect information about seven areas including the availability of medicines, doctors and paramedical staff, medical equipment and power supply at health facilities. “This information is openly shared with public through website,” he said adding that no other health department of the country has developed such kind of transparent system.

IMU has facilitated the government in taking evidence-based decisions to make full utilization of health facilities for better patient care. On district level, the Divisional Monitoring Officers (DMOs) share reports using IMU data with district health mangers including Deputy Commissioner, Medical Superintendent, and District Health Officer and help them in taking informed decisions. IMU has designed a score card to monitor the performance of DHOs on key performance indicators.

“For the first time in the history of KP government, all the public healthcare facilities have been mapped using Global Information System (GIS mapping) by IMU Health’s team. This is a big achievement for IMU and department of Health, KP,” he said.

According to a statement of health department, IMU has also initiated the Health Roadmap with technical assistance of TRF+(Technical Resource Facility) assisted by DFID. The five key areas for the Health Department Roadmap are to improve availability of critical staff at Primary Care level as, ensure availability of Essential Medicine at BHUs, strengthen routine at EPI, and establish reliable data flow mechanism through IMU.

Based on the reports of IMU, department has taken stern action against absent staff in Primary, Secondarylevel. District Health Officers (DHO) has called explanations from 152 Officials, Salary deductions from 162 staff members, Show cause notices to 31 staff members and warnings to 30 absent staff.

According to IMU data, in December 2015, 76% positions of Medical Officers were filled in BHUs while as per IMU data of March 79% positions are filled. Currently Department has hired the 330 Medical Officers recruited by Public Service Commission, it is expected that by July 2016 all the vacant positions will be filled.

When IMU started monitoring, the availability of Medicine was 48% across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, now it has reached to 61%. In January 54% positions of Senior Medical Officers (SMO) were filled but it has dropped to 52% because of recent promotions and transfers.

Utility functionality has been significantly improved in last 3 Months, when IMU analyzed the data initially it was 74%, now it has reached to 85%, similarly equipment functionality is 70%. IMU has also shared the list of Repairable/ Non-Repairable equipment with the department.

According to IMU the equipment functionality at facility level has improved and as per latest report, generators are functional in 69% facilities, X-Ray in 69% and ultrasound Machine in 56% functional in Secondary Health Care Facilities. This means still 31 out of 100 hospitals do not have functioning X-Ray and ultrasound machines.