PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department is considering setting up an additional district health office to effectively manage the health delivery system in view of the growing population and diseases burden as well as outbreaks of ailments in Peshawar district.

The task of managing health services under the existing administrative setup has become increasingly difficult for one district health officer (DHO) in view of health issues in the populated district, according to sources.

Creation of a new DHO office was desperately needed to provide healthcare facilities to the people and cope with disease outbreaks, especially dengue hemorrhagic fever, which has of late struck the provincial metropolis, they said.

Officials say it will improve health delivery system

The department wants the existing DHO to manage the areas falling in Town-1 and 4, while the proposed new DHO office will look after Town 2 and 3 and the recently-created Hassankhel subdivision.

The current DHO office would be designated as one and the newly-created as DHO-2, according to sources.

A request in this connection has been sent to the chief secretary and it would be converted into a summary after its approval, they said.

After getting the nod of the chief secretary it would be sent to the chief minister for approval of additional setup and creation of the desired posts, as one DHO, a deputy DHO and four coordinators would be managing Peshawar-2 office.

Many districts in the country already have more than one DHO offices. Karachi has about six DHOs in view of its population and therefore, Peshawar being the oldest cities with a population of 4.2 million required to have another DHO to administer its health facilities effectively.

About 52.3 per cent of the district’s population lives in rural and 47.7 per cent in urban areas, mostly near the troubled districts close to Afghan border. It has four towns and a cantonment area with 92 wards (union councils) and subdivision Koi Hassankhel, formerly known as Frontier Region, Peshawar, which was merged with it.

Peshawar’s district health system operates under one DHO, who is aided by one deputy DHO, four coordinators and other staff who are required to look after 35 civil dispensaries, 49 basic health units, six rural health centre, six mother and child health centres, one leprosy centre, four TB centres and 11 hospitals administratively. Its population has risen by more than 100 per cent in the past two decades.

The area is small with more concentration of population and health outlets and staff compared to other districts which adversely impacts the performance of current health administration, particularly in case of vector transmission season, epidemics and man-made and natural calamities.

The sources said that the department was sending a request to the chief secretary to create a second office of DHO, as performance of the existing one with regard to health delivery had gone down, with a score of 41 per cent in line with the key health indicators survey.

The demand is aimed at reforming the district health system and catering to the needs of the people, the sources said.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2018