KARACHI: Provincial Minister for Health Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar has said that Jacobabad Institute of Medical Sciences will be made an institution of international standard with the coordination of USAID and all technical, medical and security staff will be hired from open market to make it a success.

This he said while talking to Graig G Buck Deputy Mission Director Sindh and Balochistan here in Sindh Assembly Building Office on Friday. Secretary Health Dr. Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo, Dr. Dabeer Ahmed and Dr. Zulfiqar also attended the meeting.

Minister Health directed Secretary Health to remove bureaucratic hurdles in order to get the objective and to resolve all administrative and financial issues at the earliest. He added, ‘All stakeholders will be taken on board to make JIMS functional because this institution will not only cater the needs of interior Sindh but it will also provide treatment facilities to the patients of Balochistan.’

Later on talking to media, Mr. Dahar said that 07 Rural Health Centres, 08 Basic Health Centres and 202 Dispensaries are working in Thar and in collaboration with HANDS, Thar Deep and other NGOs, 404 ambulances providing health facilities to the door steps in remote areas.

Replying to question he told that 642 LHWs and 103 midwives were being given basic training here to make safe deliveries and to provide initial health care to the mothers and newly born children. He said that in first phase 165 midwives had been trained while in second phase through short training courses many hundreds educated girls would be given training in this regard.

‘We are focusing on controlling deaths of ailing mothers and their babies and ensuring maximum possible health care facilities for expectant mothers to avoid premature birth,’ he concluded.