‘KP govt committed to revamping health delivery system’

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai has said that the decades-old system of health delivery services of the province has totally collapsed and the government is committed to revamping the system and make it a vibrant and public friendly.
He said complete financial and administrative autonomy to all the medical and teaching institutions of the province was the first step towards bringing drastic changes in the old health delivery system for improving and upgrading services in the health institutions.
Shahram Tarakai was speaking as chief guest at a function here Monday in connection with World Heart Day organised by the Khyber Medical University (KMU) Peshawar in collaboration with the Department of Cardiology and Vascular Diseases, Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
The minister pledged that the provincial government was committed to fulfilling its promises made during the election campaign.
He said due to unwavering commitment of the provincial government, a visible change and improvement could be seen in every field including health, education, police, but it took time to rectify the decades old mismanagement.
“The provincial government has given complete financial and administrative autonomy to all the teaching hospitals of the provincial with the aim to enable management of these institutions to resolve the issues at hospital level. The doctors and other employees of these institutions better know their problems instead of ministers or other government officials,” Shahram Tarakai said.
He said reform initiative was yielding very encouraging results as political interference in these health institutions had been put to an end.
Vice-Chancellor KMU Dr Hafeezullah and cardiologists including Dr Adnan Gul, Dr Shazia, Dr Ambar Ashraf and others spoke about the increase in heart related disorders among the people and its prevention.
Dr Hafeezullah stressed the need for raising awareness among the people and urged the media and the educated segments of the society to make coordinated efforts for creating awareness about heart diseases and its prevention.
It was disclosed that 30 per cent of the total deaths worldwide were caused by cardiac diseases.
The cardiologists said that situation in third world countries particularly in South East Asia was worse.
It was stated that as per reports of the World Health Organisation, every year 0.4 million women died of cardiac diseases while only 40,000 women died of breast cancer.
The experts termed smoking obesity, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, mental stress and diabetes as the root causes of heart diseases and said that with slight positive changes in daily routines and habits, cardiac diseases could be avoided.
They asked the government to ensure strict implementation of the laws banning smoking in public places and to incorporate the issue of cardiac diseases in national policy agenda.