Review of Essential Services at Health Department’s Primary Care Facilities

Karachi (02.11.22): Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare, Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho held a meeting to review the Essential Services at Health Department’s Primary Care Facilities. The meeting was held with Acacus, an international organization partnering with governments to facilitate better health and education, along with Special Secretary Health and DHOs who attended online. The Minister of Health, 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 using 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 immunization by increasing vaccine and inoculation coverage to ensure that children are immunized from life-threatening and avoidable diseases. Following the directives of Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, a Monitoring Unit was launched on the 19th of September. So far over 1000 facilities have been independently monitored and the remaining will be completed by the end of November. Minister of Health and Population Welfare, 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. 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 analyzed. Through the collaborative work between Acacus and the Sindh Health Department, 11 labor rooms have been made functional 24/7 and by February next year, there will be 61 such labor rooms across the province. These labor rooms will be functioning according to the BEmONC criteria and all DHOs are advised to ensure the procurement of required inputs by the 25th of November 2022.