Daily Times

LAHORE: Instead of improving healthcare services for the ailing patients, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department was largely focused on expanding the network of its admin officials.

In the name of ‘monitoring’ of primary and secondary healthcare facilities, the department has initiated a process to establishing a new unit named Directorate General Monitoring and Evaluation (DG M&E) despite the fact that the executive district officers (health) were already carrying out these assignments.

This project would be funded by the World Bank and UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) through Annual Development Programme (ADP) Punjab. A staggering sum of Rs 333.586 million was estimated for the project’s operational cost, raising question marks on this ‘intellectual initiative’.

Sources privy to this development revealed that this unit would keep an eye on progress of all the public sector institutions, vertical programmes as well as development projects in Punjab besides highlighting achievements and lapses in the Health Department to the P&SHC secretary and others concerned.

They said under the technical assistance of Punjab IT Board, a web-based facility would be established for entering monitoring reports to a central M&E system. The reports about physical verification of different components i.e. building, infrastructure, human resources, finance and vertical programmes data, through prescribed checklists for different types of health facilities, would be gathered by the field teams and made available on dashboard.

For dashboard entries, software would be developed from PITB comprising on field monitoring templates according to the need of individual team member and key performance indicator (KPIs), they said, adding that through these templates, reports would be generated and uploaded on dashboard for instant availability to DG M&E and other stakeholders.

Sources further revealed that 126 employees would be recruited in DG M&E while a major chunk of Rs 216.504 out of the total Rs 333.586 million would be spent for salaries of the managerial staff. Also, Rs 38.200 million would be spent on procurement of equipment, furniture and vehicles besides project allowance of Rs 55.94 million and Rs 2.00 million for database integration.

In is pertinent to mention that due to paucity of funds, the P&SHC Department had failed to purchase new computerised tomography (CT scan) machines for 21 district headquarters hospitals (DHQs). Lack of CT scan machines was causing severe problems to the poor patients, who were being forced to pay a heavy cost for it. On the other hand, instead of purchasing new CT scan machines for these DHQ hospitals, the government has decided to spend Rs 333.586 million just for ‘monitoring’ purposes.

Sources pointed out that District Health Management System (DHIS) was already working in 27 DHQ hospitals, 113 THQ hospitals, 302 regional health centers (RHCs), 2,483 basic health units (BHUs), 465 dispensaries and 237 MCH Centers including 33 teaching hospitals.

Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) was also the main arm of provincial health department for programme coordination, implementation and monitoring. Currently DGHS was looking after prevention and control of communicable diseases including EPI, hepatitis, AIDS, ARI, diarrhea, typhoid, meningitis, hemorrhagic fever, dengue fever, rabies, plague, influenza, bird flu etc.