A meeting of the Standing Committee on Health Department was held under the chairmanship of MPA Dr Muhammad Salim Khan here at the Conference Room of the NWFP Assembly Secretariat, on Thursday.
Members of the provincial Assembly Muhammad Amin Khan, Dr Zakirullah Khan, Qurban Ali, chairman Health Regulatory Authority, Islam Bahadur, Muhammad Hassan, additional secretary Health, Hazrat Mahsud Mian, director Health Peshawar, Dr Sabooh Bacha, deputy secretary NWFP Assembly and other officers attended the meeting.
The committee members were briefed in detail on establishment of the Health Regulatory Authority (HRA) and the existing problems ahead of it while implementing its decisions. The members of the committee expressed concern over the poor performance of the HRA and objected that till now no change was observed in the health sector as was expected after the Authority was set up.
The chairman recommended that administrative powers should be given to the HRA so that it could arrange raids on the laboratories, illegal clinics and other illegal practices with a view to regulating the health sector.
It was expressed with concern that when the responsible officers of the HRA could not raid an illegal laboratory or seal it what could then be expected from it in streamlining the sector. It was also recommended that administrative powers were must otherwise there was no need of the HRA.
The committee also reviewed the availability of hepatitis C vaccines in the health institutions. The chairman regretted that the procedure of getting those vaccines for the poor patients was so much complicated that the patients had to stay for weeks in contacting the concerned professor.
It was recommended that the requirements for getting the vaccines should be made easy and in case of non-availability of the concerned professor, any other responsible doctor be authorised to allow the patients to get the vaccines.