LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Coordinator and Head of the polio programme in Punjab, Khizer Afzaal has expressed dismay over substandard microplans, cautioning districts that leaving out populations in microplans may impact Punjab’s polio-free status negatively.
Afzaal said, “The non-seriousness of some districts towards development of quality microplans is unacceptable. The deputy district health officers are responsible for ensuring that all microplans in their respective union councils are up to date. Below quality microplans are indicative of the fact that polio teams are prospectively missing some populations which runs the risk of allowing polio virus free space,” the EOC coordinator underscored.
He stated this while chairing a review meeting on Monday. Officials of 10 district health authorities attended the meeting via a video link.
Afzaal directed the chief executive officers to act against the relevant officers if microplans are frequently found to be of low standards.
He suggested the districts to analyze all polio campaigns data at granular level and remove all discrepancies.
The EOC coordinator directed the officials to take deputy commissioners on board regarding the districts’ performance in the recently concluded campaign.
The EOC coordinator also expressed dismay over districts’ inability to understand the challenges in the programme and suggested capacity building of the district officials urgently. Afzaal deputed the team of the EOC to arrange training of district officials on household data of children, missed children coverage and development of quality microplans.
He directed the EOC officials to work on the prospective dates of trainings and share a report with him.
The Punjab polio eradication programme head was of the view that districts needed to show more commitment towards the polio campaigns, take lethargic officials to task and start preparations for the new campaign starting in June.
Punjab had wrapped up the special polio campaign in 10 high-risk districts on Sunday last week.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024