Performance of lady health workers appreciated

LAHORE
In continuity of past traditions since 2013, organization Save the Children in collaboration with Integrated Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health & Nutrition Programme Punjab organized an event in recognition and appreciation of Frontline Health Workers from all over Punjab.
According to a press release issued on Friday, the event was organized in commemoration of the Global Health Workers Week. The best Lady Health Workers (LHWs) from 36 districts of Punjab were nominated and honored to receive the “Best LHW Award” in acknowledgement of their dedicated services for improving Mother & Child Health and Primary Health Care in Punjab.
These best performing LHWs were nominated for the prestigious awards based on their outstanding performance while saving lives of mothers and children across the province and mostly in daunting circumstances.
Health Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique chaired the event while other honorable guests from different government and non-government organizations graced the event.
Secretary Health Jawad Rafique, Secretary Planning & Development Department Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, Director Local Government & Community Development Najeeb Aslam, Director General Health Services Dr Zahid Pervaiz, Deputy Secretary Public Health Engineering Department Salman Yousaf and Additional Director Punjab Strategic Policy Unit Dr. Zahida Sarwar also attended the event.
Addressing the audience, chief guest Khawaja Salman Rafique praised performance of LHWs, saying that they are our real heroes whose life saving efforts were never highlighted as should be the case but we must acknowledge and appreciate their dedicated efforts and their spirit to serve humanity while facing all the prevalent issues in the line of duty.
The government is sincere in its efforts to increase the numbers of LHWs in the province so that they can serve the communities in need more effectively, he said.
Dr Masood Abbasi, Director Save the Children, Pakistan thanked all the government departments of Punjab for their generous support and ownership of the organization’s ongoing Diarrhoea Prevention & Control Programme in Punjab.
Yasmeen Shahzad, best LHW from district Rawalpindi after receiving her award said: “I am feeling so elevated and proud of myself. Today I feel I have really done something worth praising after receiving the appreciation and award in this ceremony. This encouragement will go a long way in improving my work as I feel more committed and will serve communities in need in an improved way”.
healthcare: Provincial Minister for Excise & Taxation, Law and Finance, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said the government is using all available resources for providing better healthcare facilities to the people, especially mother and child, in the province and the priority areas of the targets are rural-folk. He said the women representation had been made compulsory in all the government institutions, autonomous boards, development and research centres and 25,000 women had got the right to representation under the law. He told the media that 20 percent birth deliveries were attended by the skilled birth attendant and this ratio would be increased more than 90 percent by 2015 whereas contraceptive prevalence rate was 36 percent that would be increased up to 55 percent by 2015 (MDGs Target).
The minister said that in view of the importance of the role of women in economic development, the Punjab government had enhanced their job quota from five percent to 15 percent. Similarly, 50 percent quota has been fixed for women under the youth business loan scheme. He said the government was setting up daycare centres for the children of working women throughout the province at a cost of Rs. 200 million.
Talking to the delegations of women party workers, Mujtaba said the skilled birth attendants, LHVs, and LHWs were being appointed at the health centres. He said that at present under five mortality rate present was 94/1000 and it would be reduced by 45 till 2015 (MDGs Target), newborn mortality rate was 54/1000 and it would be reduced up to 25 by year 2015 whereas infant mortality rate was 77/1000 which would be reduced by 40 till 2015. He told the media that maternal mortality ratio 350-500/100000 would be reduced by 140 till 2015. He said the government had created 3,000 new posts for nurses and Rs. 1.43 billion had been allocated for this purpose.
Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said the government considered the dignity of the prestigious medical profession and would address all the major problems being faced by the medical community including paramedics. He said the focus of the provincial government was on the Primary and Protective Healthcare so as to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).