Lack of funds impeding new health projects: minister

PESHAWAR: Provincial Minister for Health Dr Hisham Inamullah on Monday cited lack of funds as a primary issue to launch new projects in the health sector.

“Around 93 per cent of the total health budget is spent on paying salaries to employees. The rest is insufficient to cater to the needs of the healthcare issues,” he said while addressing a meeting.

He said the government had allocated Rs7.2 billion for the health sector in which Rs6.3 billion were paid to employees on account of salaries. “We have just Rs900 million to run

our daily operations, manage non-development expenditures and start new projects,” he elaborated.

The minister said the Health Ministry would do to improve the healthcare services across the province within the available resources. He said that improvement had been brought in the health sector in the previous five years but much more was needed to be done.

Hisham Inamullah said that framing a new health policy was on the cards to set targets and make a framework for achieving the same.

“We would work under the policy guidelines in the next five years to achieve the goal of providing improved healthcare facilities to the common man,” he added.

The minister said he had set two targets under the first 100-day plan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government, frame a new health policy and to provide more facilities to the beneficiary of Sehat Insaf Card by including the treatment of other diseases in it.

He directed the District Health Officers (DHOs) to stop forthwith new recruitment in the Health Department. “You all are bound to inform me before appointing even a class-IV employee in the hospitals and other related offices in your respective districts,” the minister said.

The minister said the DHOs were directed to inform him about lack of staff, medicines and other equipment in hospitals in their respective districts and point out other problems to ensure better facilities to patients.

“The DHOs have been directed to report lack of staff in a week, unavailability or out of order machines in three weeks and identify loopholes in diagnostic, medicines and other related facilities in a month to remove such shortcomings,” he added.

About re-appointment of former members of Boards of Governors (BoGs), the minister said that such people were appointed on the basis of their previous performances or they met the criteria.

He defended the appointment of BoGs, saying improvement can be witnessed in hospitals after its introduction.

The minister rejected the reports that new BoGs were appointed by the federal government instead of provincial Health Department.

About issuance of Sehat Insaf Card to people of recently merged tribal districts, the minister said the provincial government would issue the cards but in the same breath expressed inability due to lack of required funds for the purpose.