Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government's decision to start air ambulance service in the province in the next four months was approved by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Tuesday.

According to the 24News HD TV channel, CM Gandapur chaired a meeting of the health department and directed the authorities to prepare a new health policy in a month to develop the health sector on modern lines.

In the meeting, it was decided to establish a motorbike response unit for densely populated areas of the province. This unit will act as a first aid service to provide timely first aid in emergencies in densely populated areas. These units will be equipped with modern equipment and necessary medicines for providing first aid.

In the meeting, it was decided to declare the Hayatabad area of Peshawar as a Healthcare City to provide all the modern medical facilities in one place to patients.

The meeting also decided to establish a Health Information and Service Delivery Unit to monitor and improve health service delivery in government hospitals of the province.

It was also decided to start an executive health check-up program for senior citizens in major government hospitals and citizens above 65 years of age will be checked up every three months for free. For this purpose, separate desks and staff will be allocated in major government hospitals. These free check-ups include lab tests, CT scan, MRI, X-ray, echo and ECG.

In order to stabilize the primary health care system in the province, the Chief Minister ordered that steps should be taken to provide ultrasound, operation theatre and gynaecology services in primary health centres and rural health centres. He said all-time availability of doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff should be ensured in these healthcare centres and all THQ hospitals should be upgraded and included in the health card panel.

Gandapur said all district headquarters hospitals (DHQs) of the province should be state-of-the-art hospitals and provision of all standard treatment facilities in DHQs should be ensured as his government will provide the required funds in this regard.

He said fair-price pharmacies should be established in all teaching hospitals and DHQ hospitals as soon as possible.

The Chief Minister directed that a Central Grievance Cell should be established in the Health Department for the redressal of legitimate grievances of the doctors and staff related to their duties.
He also directed that in all government hospitals, separate places should be allocated for sitting and sleeping of the patient's attendants and beds should also be arranged in these reserved areas for the attendants to sleep.

The Chief Minister also directed that necessary amendments should be proposed in the laws and professional people should be placed in the boards of teaching hospitals based on merit to improve the system of autonomous teaching hospitals of the province.

CM Gandapur also expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance of the District Health Offices (DHQs) as a whole and directed to review the current mechanism of their duties for better performance.

Reporter: Amir Shehzad