PESHAWAR, April 25: All federally-funded health programmes should be brought under the primary health programme and the federal and provincial governments should work together to effectively address health-related issues.

These views were expressed by NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan here on Wednesday.

He was addressing a seminar titled ‘Awareness and Advocacy Seminar for Media’ organised by the NWFP chapter of the Lady Health Workers’ Programme.

The minister said that health programme integration would give a clear direction to it besides it them more effective.

Stressing the need for changing the health sector’s financing system, he said its management and monitoring systems also needed to be improved.

Urging the media to properly highlight social issues, he said health problems should be seen in the right perspective, adding that they needed to be sensitised to disseminate accurate information, enabling policy makers to revise policies along scientific lines.

Earlier, Dr Mohammad Rehman, a public health specialist, gave a detailed presentation on primary health care issues and said its components included education about the prevailing health problems, promotion of proper food and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, family planning, immunisation, provision of drugs and prevention of endemic diseases.

Highlighting public health care’s global achievements, he said that it had been successful in eradicating smallpox and Ginue worm, curbed polio outbreaks in several countries, contributed in overall socio-economic development and reduce mortalities in various diseases besides helping reduce the incidence of poverty.