Aga Khan Health Service reaches agreement on partnership

The Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan (AKHS,P) has reached an agreement with the Department of Health Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to provide quality health care services to the community at RHC Mastuj District Chitral.

A ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) signing ceremony was held at Health Secretariat Peshawar. Mr Rahamtullah Khan Wazir, DCO Chitral and Dr Rashida Ahmed, Chairperson Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan signed MoU in the presence
of Mr. Munir Azam Secretary Health Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mr. Salim Khan Minister for Population Welfare Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Sher Qayyum Khan EDO(H) Chitral; Dr. Shabina Raza Chief Health Sector Reform Unit, Dr. Imtiaz Ali Shah;
Mr. Afsar Ali EDO Finance Chitral, Dr Qayyum Noorani Program Manager Health Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan; Mr. Sadiq Alwani Chief Financial Officer AKHS,P; Dr Rozina Mistry Director Community Health AKHS,P; Dr Zafar Ahmed General Manager AKHS,P Chitral, Mr.
Amir Afzal, Dr. Ali Murad, Mr. Sikander ul Mulk Chairman, RHC Health Committee, and Mr. Rahimullah was also present on the occasion

Meanwhile Chairman Health Committee RHC Mastuj and Former Tehsil Nazim Mastuj Shahzada Sikandarul Mulk has thanked Health Department Govt: of Khyber Pakhtunkha, District Management, Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), Pak-Italian
Debt Swap Agreement (PIDSA), Health Sector Reform Unit, on behalf of the people of Mastuj for providing health facilities to the poor people of the area in their door step. He also thanked AKHSP and Regional Council for their best cooperation in this regard.

Mr. Sikandarul Mulk said in early sixties the Department of Health Government of NWFP (DOH) constructed RHC in village Mastuj, for providing standard health care services, including essential primary care and emergency obstetric
and neonatal care to clients referred from primary care facilities located in the Mastuj tehsil with a population of 50,000. He said the Hospital was useless for the people of the area due to non-availability of Doctors and health facilities.

He said AKHS,P first time started Public Private Partnership (PPP) with Department of Health (DoH) Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa at RHC Shagram in 2008. The PPP approach showed encouraging result and as a result of this successful
experience the people of the area requested the AKHSP to provide such facilities in RHC Mastuj and the DoH suggested AKHS,P to extend the partnership in some other health facilities of Chitral such as RHC Mastuj, in order to provide quality health care services
to the community.

He said under the new agreement, the Government has handover management of the existing infrastructure and budget allocated for the RHC Mastuj to AKHS,P. AKHS,P is responsible for provision of quality health care services to the
local community including maternal and child health services; to ensure participation of local community in decision making by a health committee at facility level to guarantee linkages between the community and the health facility as well as to make certain
the protection of health rights of the local community. He said the partnership will be useful for the local community in terms of: better use of resources; to improve access to essential services by the community; to prevent maternal and child deaths due
to delays in accessing care; to reduce unjustified referrals; to reduce the cost of hiring transport and taking a day-long journey to reach Booni Medical Center and the DHQ Hospital Chitral.

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Posted by Sonia Bashir on Nov 14 2011. Filed under National. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry