LAHORE: The sit-in by Lady Health Workers (LHW) had political motives; the politicians came to express solidarity in the dharna at the time when their provincial government neither gave service structures nor paid salaries of many months to the LHWs. Punjab is the only province that regularised 50,000 LHW and also pioneered in approving service structure and new pay scales to them. The working on service structure of LHWs has been in progress for the last several months. Provincial Minister for Primary & Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazir expressed these views while addressing CEO’s conference on Friday. On this occasion, Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan, Special Secretary Dr Faisal Zahoor, General Health Services Director Dr Munir Ahmed, Programme Project Director Dr Mukhtar Hussain Syed, Health CEO and DHO’s of all districts were present. The minister said that all indicators of healthcare services in Punjab are improving day by day. He said that after completing provision of latest machinery and modern facilities, the department is now focusing on quality assurance, which is the result of teamwork. The minister added that attendance of staff, cleanliness services of hospitals and provision of other health facilities has improved significantly and all districts are in green zone in this regard. He added that 24,000 children have been screened in integrated screening camps for special children so far which happened first time in history of Pakistan. He said that parents have special responsibility regarding the prevention of diseases and safe vaccination to their children which help to avoid polio and other diseases, adding that with the help of Punjba Information Technology Board, 250 BHUs are being converted to E-BHU in which online doctors from Lahore Centre will check patients. This facility will be available in those BHUs that are situated in remote areas where doctors do not like to go. The minister directed the CEO to organise awareness seminars and other activities for celebration of World Health Day enthusiastically. On the occasion, Ali Jan Khan said that during health survey of Punjab, performance of Rawalpindi and Faisalabad district was best while Rajanpur showed overwhelming improvement. He said that Health Management Information System (HMIS) are being expanded with the help of PITB in tehsil and district hospitals of Punjab. He also said that HMIS will help to improve queue management system, emergency and other service delivery issues. He directed all CEOs to ensure provision of medicine in all health facilities if any issue appeared in this regard, they should immediately contact helpline 1033. Addressing the conference, Health Services Director General Dr Munir Ahmed briefed the participants on measles and polio campaign. Published in Daily Times, April 7th 2018.