MoH body to re-evaluate functioning of emergency, accident units

The six-member committee will submit the report within the next three months.

According to Dr Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Ghafur, Assistant Under-Secretary for Curative Medicine Department, the committee has been conceived as part of the ministry’s initiative to upgrade their services in accordance with the surge in demand. “We have a system by which there is regular check-ups and inspections every three years to ensure that they follow the ministerial regulations and implement the quality standards that we insist in the delivery of healthcare services,” said Dr Abdul Ghaffar.

According to him, there is a huge rush at the Accident and Emergency units because even casual patients are ignoring the primary healthcare centres and instead approaching the hospitals. “We are planning to set up parallel emergency clinics within the emergency units so that the ‘cold cases’ or the not-so-serious cases can be referred back to the ordinary ward,” he said.

However Dr Gaffar said that as per the proposed plan for 2005-06, the primary healthcare centres will be fully equipped with full-fledged lab, pharmacies, X-ray centre etc. “There will also be facilities to treat patients with chronic illness like diabetes, hypertension etc. for more than a month at the centres,” he added.