Parliamentary Body on Health Services, Regulations and Co-ordination was informed Friday that Pakistan's first nursing university will be established in Islamabad with the collaboration of Bahrain government and a strategic plan for Pakistan Nursing Council is also underway to improve performance and standard of nursing. Meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Health Services, Regulations and Co-ordination was held under the chair of MNA Khalid Hussain Magsi in the Parliament House.
Briefing the committee members on reforms in the nursing profession, Minister of State for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar said under the policy of merit and transparency first time in the history of the country a PhD Nurse has been appointed as President of Pakistan Nursing Council.
She said this measure has borne fruit since the new President was able to implement the government's reform agenda. The Minister informed the committee members that Registration Cards Issuing System has improved. Normal cases for registration of nurses are being finalised within two weeks instead of three months and urgent registration cards are being handed over on the same day instead of two weeks. Back Log of old registration has been completely eliminated, she added. Online registration system for nurses has been launched and efforts are afoot to inculcate more awareness about the online registration among the nursing professionals, she said.
The committee members, however, recommended formation of sub-offices of the nursing council at provincial level to deal with the registration cases and competency based curriculum at Bachelor and Master level. The committee also recommended improving service structure and promotion policy for the nursing staff.
Giving briefing on Pharmacy Council of Pakistan (PCP), it was informed that several new initiatives have been taken to strengthen the PCP. A pool of inspectors is going to be trained with the help of Higher Education Commission while by-laws and service regulations of the PCP are duly framed and are under process of notification.