Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet approves first health policy

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Sunday approved its first health policy for the province including the tribal areas.

Provincial Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan said the policy was finalised after passing it through different phases.

Under the policy, Hisham Inamullah, said attention would be paid on health’s primary and secondary facilities.

“We will try to avoid launching new projects,” he said.

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He said the government was going to introduce a new policy about transfer and posting. He said 5,000 doctors had been registered since taking charge of the ministry.

The health minister said surprise visits at hospitals were part of the strategy. He confirmed that tribal districts were also included in the health policy.

In November last year, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, while underlining the need of concrete and long lasting health policy, had said that the focus on the rural health centers was crucial for attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Addressing the inaugural session of consultative workshop on the development of national health policy and provincial strategic framework, the health minister had said that Pakistan was facing lack of health facilities, particularly in rural areas which were badly “neglected in the past”.

Dr Yasmin had said that conducting such workshop was a milestone in engineering new health policy.