Draft bill for regional health authorities reviewed

LAHORE: A proposed draft bill for the establishment of Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) was reviewed in a meeting presided over by the Punjab Health Minister Prof Yasmin Rashid here on Thursday.

RHAs would be established in each divisional headquarters. Presently health authorities at district level were working and purpose of constitution of RHAs was to improve chain of command between district and provincial level, said the minister.

She also reiterated that the Punjab government was committed to enhancing and polishing service delivery at grassroots level. Under the proposed bill each RHA would be comprised of nine members and any member could hold this post for two consecutive tenures of five years. There must be prohibition of third-term, she said. During the meeting various prospects and objectives of proposed RHAs were discussed. Only senior doctors and eminent local figures should become member of RHA, she said.

Prof Yasmin Rashid also said the Punjab government wants to empower local health authorities for smooth and effective provision of health facilities. All stakeholders were being taken into the loop to make RHAs Bill more prospective, she added.

Diet awareness: Punjab Food Authority (PFA) Thursday held one-day awareness camp on “The Role of Diet in the Management of Diabetes” to sensitise public at Services Hospital.

Nutritionists had aware more than 500 people about the dietary guidelines after their complete medical examination and nutrition counselling. PFA DG Captain (R) Muhammad Usman, Services Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Syed Qumbar Zia and HOD Endocrinology Dr Khadija Irfan visited the camp.

On the occasion, the teams conducted free medical tests of visitors including patients regarding diabetes and gave complete counselling to them. They also distributed broachers concerning diet plan/ information to over 1,000 people.

The DG PFA directed the officials concerned to establish nutrition clinics in all the districts of Punjab and increase the number of such camps in future. He said the purpose of the camp was to aware citizens about healthy diet because a number of people were facing various growth, health and reproduction issues due to not consuming balanced diet. PFA is preparing a comprehensive strategy to aware Punjab’s population regarding the best diet/ nutrition, he added.

Dr Qumbar said PFA was promoting the use of healthy food among people which was a good initiative. He said diabetes was a fatal disease but we can control on it through a healthy diet.

Seminar: On the eve of World Quality Day, a seminar on the topic of “Improving the quality of education” was held at University of Education which was attended by a large number of faculty members and students.

Addressing the seminar, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Rauf-i-Azam said our education system was based on rote learning which was a barrier in improving the quality of education.