Peshawar:Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Khan Gandapur on Wednesday chaired a meeting of KP Healthcare Commission and Directorate of Drug Control and Pharmacy Services.
The meeting was attended by Advisor to CM on Health, Ihtisham Ali, Health Secretary Adeel Shah, Director General Health Services Dr. Muhammad Saleem, Director General Drug Control Dr. Abbas and Chief Executive Officer Healthcare Commission Dr. Nadeem.
Meeting was convened to review the performance, objectives, challenges and future strategies of subordinate offices of health department.
Chairing the meeting Chief Minister directed Healthcare Commission to devise and implement a comprehensive plan to improve the quality of healthcare facilities across the province.
He emphasized conducting clinical and surgical audits of healthcare centers, registering unregistered facilities and working on a timeline-based plan with regular progress reviews.
He also instructed the commission to address staff shortages by hiring necessary person
nel and taking strict action against those facilities that are providing substandard medical services. The Directorate of Drug Control was directed to establish at least one mobile drug testing laboratory at each divisional headquarters and fill vacant positions of pharmacists in all government hospitals.
During the meeting, CEO Healthcare Commission briefed participants about the overall performance of authority and informed that over 18,911 healthcare centers have been registered with an online portal introduced for an easier registration process.
Geo-tagging of 38,443 centers has been completed and assessments of 159 centers for licensing are underway. It was told that in the last 2.5 years 10,085 inspections were conducted, notices were issued to 2,606 facilities, and 2,062 were sealed due to violations whereas of 2839 complaints out of 3006 received were resolved during the period.
It was further told that actions were initiated against 1,523 cases of quackery, resulting in fines for 1,189 facilities
and the sealing of 763 centers. Similarly training was given to the staff of 835 public and private hospitals.
The meeting was briefed that a total of 13,928 pharmacies were inspected in which 1,977 drug stocks were seized. The concerned officials told the meeting that 234 pharmacies were sealed, 107 FIRs filed and Drug Court imposed penalties amounting to Rs. 8.59 million besides imprisonment sentences.
The Chief Minister emphasized the importance of strict enforcement of healthcare standards and drug quality to ensure the wellbeing of the public directing authorities to ensure regular monitoring and follow ups.