Balochistan Caretaker Minister for Health Faiz Kakar sought enhanced assistance from the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) for the automation of health sector by replicating Punjab’s Hospital Information Management System (HIMS).
It was expressed by the provincial minister accompanied by Special Secretary Health Balochistan Javed Akhtar Mahmood during a meeting with PITB Chairman Dr Umar Saif on Wednesday.
Earlier, the caretaker health minister also met the Punjab Chief Minister Dr Hassan Askari and expressed keen interest in the digitisation of Punjab’s health sector and sought help to improve the various functioning of the health sector in Balochistan.
Dr Umar Saif briefed the visiting Minister regarding PITB’s Information Communication Technology based initiatives that have revolutionised the health landscape in Punjab, focusing on HIMS and e-Vaccs programmes that were also replicated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
PITB would assist in automating hospitals in Balochistan using Punjab’s HIMS and would further extend support for vaccination monitoring, which has already resulted in improving vaccinator attendance in Balochistan from 23 percent to 61 percent in 10 months, he added.
Giving an overview of e-Vaccs project Dr Umar informed that in Balochistan 377 vaccinators have already registered 17,772 new children through apps provided by PITB while total vaccines administered in Balochistan were 183,675. In Punjab, the 3,799 vaccinators administered 47,723,144 vaccines and registered 6,782,949 children while the coverage area in Punjab stood at 97 percent, Balochistan 58 percent and KP 73 percent, he stated. In Punjab, health department initiatives like HIMS, Automation of Drug Testing Laboratories, monitoring of attendance of doctors, Monitoring of Pharmacies and availability of Medicines, Centralised Procurement of Medicines have brought encouraging results.
The World Health Organisation conducted a survey in Pakistan on Polio vaccination and Punjab turned out to be most progressive province in propagating the cause.
Published in Daily Times, July 12th 2018.