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Friday March 29, 2024

ICT health model delivers its first community health centre

By Shahina Maqbool
November 30, 2019

Islamabad :In order to strengthen the primary healthcare system as a means to achieving universal health coverage, the Shah Allah Ditta Community Health Centre (CHC; previously Basic Health Unit) was inaugurated here Friday to serve as a replicable model for health sector reforms at the provincial level.

Both Minister for Planning Asad Umar, as well as the Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Health Dr. Zafar Mirza, inaugurated the CHC, which has earned the distinction of becoming Pakistan’s first primary care level facility offering a well-defined package of essential health services. Asad Umar’s presence owed it to his winning the elections from this very constituency.

Inspired by Disease Control Priorities (DCP-3)—a global initiative of cost-effective interventions—the package consists of preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative services and will be delivered at five levels of health care, namely, community level (through Lady Health Workers) Primary Healthcare Facility level (such as the Shah Allah Ditta CHC), secondary level (i.e., first level hospitals, like MCH Hospital, Aabpara),tertiary level (like the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences), and at the population level (through mass media). Pakistan has developed its national package of essential health services, and is the first pilot country in the world to adopt the package based on DCP3 guidance.

The CHC is designed to extend a set of 94 services across 18 domains of health and nutrition. The services are covered through an expanded range of diagnostics and medicines (ECG, X-ray, Ultrasonography, Laboratory testing for blood/urine/fecal samples), counseling, and follow-up treatment. Additionally, an ambulance for referral on a 24/7 basis has also been commissioned. Staff at the CHC will work in two shifts—from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 2 p.m.-8 p.m.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Zafar termed the launching of the new CHC as marking the beginning of an era characterized by accessible, affordable and high-quality healthcare for all. “In order to actualize the health revolution envisioned by the Prime Minister, we are beginning from ICT with community and PHC facility level interventions whereby LHWs are retrained and the BHU is comprehensively upgraded (now called CHC) in accordance with the new package,” he said. Dr. Zafar was convinced that unless health facilities are available to people at their doorsteps, Pakistan’s health indicators are unlikely to improve. “There is a grand idea behind this project, and the idea to save the poorest of the poor from catastrophic spending on health so that they do not find themselves forced to expend their lifelong savings on saving the life of a loved one,” he said.

Under the said model, all public sector health facilities will be computerized and will have a database of each individual and family in the area. All health centers and hospitals will be using the same Health Management Information software, and all centers and hospitals will be e-connected for effective referral systems. “This new healthcare stream will reliably deliver essential health services in an integrated manner according to people’s needs. The new system represents real transformation in the healthcare system, a change that the people of Pakistan have waited for 70 years,” Dr. Zafar maintained, while offering fullest support to the provinces for replication of the model.

Asad Umar appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of National Health Services and prophesied that the replicable ICT model of healthcare will go a long way in alleviating the health problems of the poor. “This launch is very significant as it marks the beginning of a transformation at the primary healthcare (PHC) level whereby around 70% of all healthcare needs of people will be met at their doorstep,” he stated.

In addition to essential packages, the greater plan chalked out by the Ministry of Health includes building a number of new health facilities in ICT. These include one new secondary care facility, three new maternal and child health centers, and four new basic health units, together with up-grading of all three RHCs and 16 BHUs, with the latter having enhanced set of staff, services and provisions and being re-labeled as CHCs. The expansion of Polyclinic hospital and a 200-bedded hospital for rural Islamabad is also part of this comprehensive plan.

The ICT health model has the support of the World Health Organization, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Manitoba-Canada, and the University of Liverpool-UK.