Paediatric emergency, telemedicine centres to be established in KP

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health Syed Qasim Ali Shah, on Tuesday signed a letter of understanding for the establishment of paediatric emergency and telemedicine centres in the province.

Besides the health minister, other participants, including Secretary Health Adil Shah, DG Health Dr Muhammad Saleem, additional director generals, and other relevant officials attended the signing ceremony.

Health Minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah and Chief Executive Officer Child Life Foundation Ahsan Rabani signed the letter of understanding. Speaking to the media representatives, the minister of health said that paediatric emergency and telemedicine centres would be established under the initiative in all districts of the province, which would be operational from today.

He added that paediatric emergencies would be established in hospitals across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which would be staffed by paediatric specialists. Specialist doctors will be available to provide treatment to children from any corner of the province through video link,” he added.

CEO Child Life Foundation Ahsan Rabani said that timely treatment facilities would be provided to children under the programme. In any complicated case, he said,

paediatric experts from across Pakistan will be available to provide expert opinion on call.

“This initiative will significantly reduce the mortality rate of children. The telemedicine setup will start functioning in all hospitals from tonight. FCPS paediatricians will be available 24/7 to provide guidance on treatment,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a separate meeting with the Peshawar-based journalists, Syed Qasim Shah said the government was working on digitalisation of the healthcare system of the province to provide maximum benefits to the patients.

He said he was aware of the hardships of the patients being referred unnecessarily to the hospitals in Peshawar from peripheries and will soon convene a meeting of the concerned people to strictly discourage this trend.

He also said that since emergency care is always considered the face of a hospital, therefore, their government would ensure each and every hospital to have the best available services in their accident and emergency department.“Providing the best available services to our people in the public sector hospitals is my top priority and we will utilise all available resources to equip our hospitals so the patients don’t need to go to private hospitals,” Health Minister Qasim Shah pledged.On the demand of President Peshawar Press Club Arshad Aziz Malik, the minister offered to set up a health clinic in the press club for the journalists and their families.