PMNHP To Cover Four Districts Of Balochistan

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th August, 2016) : Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Darshan Friday said that first phase of Prime Minister National Health Programme (PMNHP) would cover four districts of Balochistan to provide free of charge medical facility. Replying to a question during question hour in the National Assembly, the parliamentary secretary said that prime minister's National Health Programme (PMNHP) had been launched by the Prime Minister on December 31st, 2015. He said four districts of Balochistan included District Quetta, District Lasbela, District Loralai and District Kech.

A total of 244,810 poor families (1.4 million individuals) will be benefiting from the programme. He said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC), a nursing professional has been elected as the president of the council.

In the past a doctor used to be president of the council. He said that to bring nursing education at par with international standard, General Nursing Diploma is decided to phase out in year 2021 and four year Generic BSN Degree Program has been introduced in its place 17 For bringing specialization in Midwifery field in order to reduce MMR and NMR rate, two years degree program like Bachelor of Midwifery (BSM) has been started.

He said that to flourish nursing profession in the country, the government has currently signed an MoU with Government of Bahrain for setting up a Nursing University in Islamabad. He said that new online registration system has been started to facilitate and update the Nursing and Midwifery Profession like other developed parts of the world.

Pay package of nursing professionals/ health personal working in the government setup has been enhanced as government has given the special approval for addition of Health Risk Allowances in their pay package. He said that to meet the deficiencies of nursing professionals in the country, new seats have been created in different colleges.

The government has decided to constitute Pakistan Allied Health Professional council for Paramedics for which legislation is under process. He said that the consent of Sindh Government is awaited for the establishment of this council which will help to regulate the profession. He said that Population Welfare Programme has been transferred to the Provinces under 18th Constitutional Amendment.

The Federal government is now only responsible to provide national policy framework or guidelines for onward formulation of provincial population policies.