ISLAMABAD: Special Adviser to Prime Minister on Health, Dr Zafar Mirza, has said the federal cabinet has approved re-organisation of the health ministry, ARY News reported on Tuesday.
Dr Zafar Mirza said that the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination will be renamed after Ministry of Health and Population. He added that the ratio of technical and administrative positions was imbalanced in the ministry as 80 per cent of the posts came under the category of administration and the remaining 20 per cent were technical.
The officers and staff members from administrative category have no background of their field of work, said Dr Mirza, adding that the recommendation was approved for making the ratio of technical staff up to 70 per cent to end the shortage of trained officials and health experts in the ministry.
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He said that approval was also given to establish National Health Service Group by the federal cabinet.
Earlier on January 1, Dr Zafar Mirza had announced the healthcare targets of 2020 set by Pakistan including polio eradication, disposal syringes and issuance of health insurance cards, ARY News reported on Wednesday.
Dr Zafar Mirza, in his statement to the media, said the country was facing a decline in social sectors due to economic deficit in 2019 while the federal government had paid complete attention to its healthcare vision.
The special assistant said the government had not only issued health insurance [Sehat Insaf] cards but also expanded its scope to other parts of the country by providing it to all needy families till December 2019.
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The next target is to provide the facility to half of the overall population of Pakistan by December 2020, he added.
Commenting over polio virus, Mirza detailed that cases had been reduced to 8 in 2017 but it was increased at the beginning of 2018 while 19 new cases were reported in 2019 including the majority of affected children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
He further said the health ministry had reached 400 million children for anti-polio vaccination. Mirza expressed hopes for achieving targets in December 2020 for polio-free Pakistan. He vowed the authorities will eradicate disposal syringe till June 2020 by introducing auto-disable syringes which cannot be reused.
