Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique on Wednesday directed officers of the Mother, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) programme of the Health Department to ensure targets set as the millennium development goals (MDGs) regarding maternal and child health were met.
He was presiding over a meeting to review the performance of the MNCH programme.
Health Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar, Additional Secretary (Development) Ghulam Farid, Health Services Director General Zahid Pervaiz, Additional Secretary (Technical) Anwar Janjua and MNCH Director Zafar Ikram were also present.
Rafique said the objectives of the MNCH programme was to enhance health facilities for women and children, reduction of maternal and infant mortality rate, extension of health facilities in remote areas and posting of skilled birth attendants at health centres.
Rafique further said reduction in maternal and infant death ratio was a top priority of the government.
Ikram told the meeting that the maternal mortality was currently 227 per 100,000. He said the government was aiming to bring it down to 140 per 100,000 by 2016.
He said 104 children out of 1,000 died before the age of five years. He said the government hoped to reduce the number to 52 by 2016.
Tarar said an awareness drive was essential. He said lady health workers should promote the use of ORS for children suffering from diarrhoea to reduce mortality rates.
He said health festivals should be organised in rural areas to create awareness and promote health education among rural folk.
HOTA meeting
Rafique also presided over a meeting of the Human Organs Transplantation Authority (HOTA) at King Edward Medical College University on Wednesday. He said the system of human organs transplant would be streamlined to eliminate the illegal business of selling and buying human organs
HOTA members, KEMCU Vice Chancellor Faisal Masood, Punjab Health Care Commission Member Naseem Riaz, LGH Prof Ahmed Salman Waris, Prof Zafar and Prof Arshad Cheema of Mayo Hospital, Prof Azharur Rehman of the Services Institute of Medical Sciences and several government officers attended the meeting.
The participants of the meeting agreed to discourage sale and purchase of human organs and stressed the need to activate the HOTA and evolve a system for transplantation.
Rafique also stressed the need to create awareness about donating human organs by relatives of needy patients.
The participants decided to send the government their recommendations to set up offices at the divisional level and constituting a permanent structure for the Authority.
They also asked Rafique to request the government for a separate budget. Rafique said the HOTA would register the hospitals carrying out human organs transplant so that all transplants were carried out in a transparent manner.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2014.