- The meeting was held with Acacus, an international organisation partnering with governments to facilitate better health and education.
- Dr. Azra Pechuho had previously approved a set of primary care reforms for the province.
- Over 1,000 facilities have been monitored so far and the remaining will be completed by the end of November.
KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare, Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho on Wednesday chaired a meeting to review the essential services at Health Department’s Primary Care Facilities.
The meeting was held with Acacus, an international organisation partnering with governments to facilitate better health and education.
Dr. Azra Pechuho had previously approved a set of primary care reforms for the province that included to improve the functionality of the health facilities which would entail creating an independent and real-time monitoring system to collect data and use it to improve the functioning of health facilities.
Improving access to healthcare that would be done by upgrading Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEmONC) facilities to provide 24/7 care and incorporating them into the emergency referral system. Improving immunisation by increasing vaccine and inoculation coverage to ensure that children are immunised from life-threatening and avoidable diseases.
Following the directives of the health minister monitoring, the unit was launched on September 19. So far over 1,000 facilities have been independently monitored and the remaining will be completed by the end of November.
Dr. Azra added that this monitoring system was for basic emergency obstetric and newborn care but there should be a comprehensive one as well that entails a referral system so that should a facility not be able to accommodate an ob/GYN requiring patient, they can at least refer and transfer them via ambulance to the nearest one that can. The each facility that has been registered in the system will be monitored once a month, there will also be surprise visits to ensure that the day-to-day functioning can be analysed.
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Through the collaborative work between Acacus and the Sindh Health Department, 11 labour rooms have been made functional 24/7 and by February next year, there will be 61 such labour rooms across the province.
