After continuous efforts for the improvement of child health, the provincial government has been able to achieve a drastic reduction in child mortality from 104 to 46 deaths per 1,000 live births over a five-year period.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah disclosed this while speaking at a programme organised by the ChildLife Foundation to celebrate the expansion of the Telemedicine Network to 100 hospitals located in every tehsil of the province. The event was held at Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi.
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Health Secretary Zulfiqar Shah and others attended the meeting.
The CM said the provincial government had developed a partnership with the ChildLife in 2010 with the objective to improve children's emergency care of over one million children annually.
He added that since 2018, he had developed a network of health facilities to ensure that no child in Karachi was more than 30 minutes away from world-class 24/7 free emergency services. “We have established Emergency Response Services [ERs] in five government hospitals of Karachi,” he said and added that in 2019, the ERs were extended to five hospitals in Karachi, Hyderabad, Shaheed Benazirabad, Larkana and Sukkur.
Talking about telemedicine, Shah said that by 2022, telemedicine satellite centres had been established in all the taluka headquarters, and in 2023, they had been set up in all the tehsils of Sindh.
He said such centres had children emergency specialists who provided consultation round the clock, which saved critical time for treatment and parents from travelling to major cities.
The CM said the Unicef-supported MICS survey of 2021 reported a drastic reduction in child mortality in Sindh from 104 to 46 per 1,000 live births over a five-year period.
“This has been possible due to the focus of the Sindh government on child health especially through public-private partnership programs,” he remarked, adding that in 2018, Economist Intelligence Unit rated Sindh as the 6th best in partnerships in Asia.
The CM maintained that his government had extended full support to ChildLife, and he was proud of their achievements. “I am impressed with how Child Life is leveraging the synergy of partnerships to attain increased impact,” he said.
Polytechnic institute
The CM also spoke on Thursday at a ceremony after the inauguration of the Government Polytechnic Institute, Azam Basti, which has been built in collaboration with ZABTech, adds our correspondent.
He said only united struggle could only help the nation overcome the issues of joblessness and poverty. “Being a political activist, it is imperative for me to further the vision of Benazir Bhutto in this regard,” he said.
He told the audience that his government had decided to hand over the new polytechnic institute in Azam Basti to SZABIST-ZABTech. “Now today I’m pleased to see the modern facilities available in its classrooms and vocational laboratories,” he said.
Shah remarked that he was impressed by seeing that the newly launched polytechnic institute offered vast opportunities for the vocational and technical training of female students. He said that such opportunities would go a long way towards economic empowerment of women.
He said the SZABIST-ZABTech had emerged as the largest institution in the province imparting vocational and technical training.
He informed the audience that the SZABIST-ZABTech had also partnered with the Balochistan government for establishing a centre of excellence in Hub under the public-private partnership mode.
The CM also appreciated the quality and standards maintained by the SZABIST-ZABTech in providing technical training.
He added that collective efforts were required for launching programmes for generating employment opportunities for the jobless youth in the country. He recalled that Benazir had always emphasised during her regime the provision of opportunities for vocational training to the youth.
He told the audience that the new polytechnic institute would impart technical and vocational training to 1,000 youth in the first stage.
Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Labour and Human Resource Minister Saeed Ghani expressed the hope that the new polytechnic institute would enable the enrolled youth to generate livelihood opportunities for themselves.
He said the new polytechnic institute was situated in an impoverished locality of Azam Basti, which was part of his constituency. He said the vocational training institute was a gift by the Sindh government to the people of the area.
He informed the audience that the polytechnic institute had the capacity to enrol a total of 1,500 students in three shifts. He expressed gratitude to the CM for providing sufficient funds to establish the institute in the shortest possible time.
