The Sindh Health Department has finally closed down eight vertical programmes in the health sector.
Transferring them from development to non-development side, the government has shifted their material and human resources to 29 District Health Officers (DHOs) under the supervision of the Director General (DG) Health Services Sindh.
The health department issued a notification in this regard on Thursday. According to it, the eight vertical programmes are the TB Control Programme, the HIV/AIDS Programme, the Sindh LHW Programme for FP and PHC, the Malaria Control Programme, the Prevention and Control of Hepatitis, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Programme, the Prevention and Control of Dengue, and the Prevention and Control of Blindness.
These programmes have been integrated into the healthcare service delivery model at primary, secondary and tertiary care levels, said the notification.
Explaining the move, a health official told The News that the health department had merged these programmes into the existing structure of the department and now the Director General Health Services Sindh would monitor and supervise the activities of these programs, which would be performed by the District Health Officers (DHOs) in their relevant districts.
“These programmes were not performing efficiently and their resources were being wasted by the programme directors and other staff. A commons problem was that resources were being plundered, while desirable results were not being achieved,” the official claimed.
The official said that posts of the project directors were lucrative positions and health officials were in the habit of using the influence of all kinds to get appointed as the directors of these programmes.
“Foreign tours in the garb of training, luxurious lifestyle and waste of resources had become a common issue. On the ground, the performance was not visible and the government was under criticism for the waste of resources on these programmes,” the official added.
Sharing the new organogram, the official said now these programmes would be supervised by the DG health services and there would also be an additional DG health who would be controlling these programmes through nine deputy director generals (DDGs) in the province.
“These DDGs would be named as DDG health education, DDG human resource development and paramedical education, DDG RMNCH, DDG communicable diseases control, DDG vector-borne diseases, DDG non-communicable diseases, DDG oral and dental health, DDG monitoring and evaluation and DDG management (planning, admin and accounts),” the official said.
The official said all these officials, including the DG and the additional DG health, as well as the deputy director generals, would be grade-20 officials. The official said they would be monitoring and supervising the performance of the district health officers (DHOs) in 29 districts of the province.
“From now onwards, all the activities in the HIV/Aids, TB, Malaria, Dengue, Hepatitis, Maternal and Child Health and Blindness would be performed by the DHOs. New posts would be created in the DG Health Services Sindh office and they would be responsible for the smooth functioning of these activities”, the official added.