Public Health Supply Chain System launched

F.P. Report

Peshawar: Provincial Health Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Dr.Hisham Inamullah Khan launched District Public Health Supply Chain System Strengthening Initiative to ensure availability of medicines for the men, women and chidren of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the grass root levels; a joint initiative of KP Government and USAID funded Global Health Supply Chain-Procurement and Supply Management project.

In this regard and ceremony was held at Islamabad  attending by MNA shaukat, secretary health Dr. Farooq Jamil, health advisor Dr. Jawad wasif, media coordinator daniyal Khan and representatives of USAid and health officials KP.

The district-based interventions would primarily focus on addressing the supplychain related deficiencies that are primarily responsible for non-availability of quality drugs at different tiers of health care. Initially, four districts will be piloted namely Charsadda, Swat, Buner and LakkiMarwat and subsequently these reforms would be replicated in remaining Province.

Mr. Hisham lnamullah Khan, Minister for Health ,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inaugurated the launch of this initiative and HR Management application lauded the efforts of USAID and Procurement and Supply Management project in repairing and integrating the fragmented supply chain ecology at provincial level.

The Minister expressed his complete confidence in the expected outcomes of the interventions which aim at integrated, transparent client friendly systems at al llevels of healthcare continuum.

He emphasized that these reforms are critical to accomplishing the ambitious health agenda of universal coverage by targeting all tiers of health infrastructure i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary health care levels; implementation of drug and device information system at DHQ and THQ levels, in line with the system being implemented in the tertiary care hospitals of Islamabad; design, development and deployment of district integrated supply chain system which are scalable sustainable and cost-effective; data visibility through rich visualization optics use of data for evidence-based decision making ,and human resource capacity building.

The Minister also alluded to the project’s collaboration with KP government in working on leveraging technology for standardization of doctors’ database and bridging people with the government to address any grievances pertaining to health services through” Grievances Management System”. Finally, he requested all the development partners and the donors to come forward and create synergies with project’s interventions to help Government realize its ambitious healthcare reforms agenda.

Senior management from Procurement and Supply Management project shared the strategic vision to connect people with health commodities by bridging public policy ,technology, service delivery infrastructures, and systems related gaps to finance and delver health products to impoverished, marginalized and most under deserved communities.

He expressed profound delight at the inter-provincial representation of the distinguished public-sector stakeholders from both Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is a recognition of appette for cross-provincial strategic collaborations to solve key public health supply chain related challenges through experience sharing.

Provincial Secretaries Health and Population Welfare Departments also shared their accomplishments and stressed the need to be amenable and receptive to the added responsibilities that the approaching time sherald for the public health system.