Gujar khan - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has greenlighted the outsourcing of around 150 basic health units (BHUs) in the rural areas of the province under the Maryam Nawaz Health Clinics (MNHC) project to provide improved health facilities to residents of remote areas. According to the health sources, 19 such health facilities have been shortlisted from four districts of the Rawalpindi division.
According to the data available with The Nation, 7 BHUs have been shortlisted from Rawalpindi district, 5 from Jhelum, 5 from Chakwal, and 2 from Attock. The BHUs being outsourced in the Rawalpindi district include BHU Buchial, BHU Jand Mehlu, BHU Kolian Hameed, BHU Mankiala Brahmana, and BHU Kurri Dullal, BHU Dakhali and BHU Ranotra.
The Jhelum district is witnessing the outsourcing of BHU Kalwantpur, BHU Surgdhan, BHU Adrana, BHU Bilal Health Filter Clinic, and BHU Kotla Faqir. The BHUs selected from Chakwal district include BHU Dhoke Musahib, BHU Jhatla Jaswal, BHU Khairpur, BHU Chakral, and BHU Maingan. The BHU Khalaqabad and BHU Malhuwala in the Attock district are shortlisted for outsourcing as part of the Chief Minister’s health reforms program.
Sources indicate that the chief minister has granted final approval for the selection of 150 medical officers (MOs) and women medical officers (WMOs) to operate the outsourced BHUs, while monthly third-party assessments of these facilities would be implemented to verify adherence to national healthcare standards and contractual obligations.
Sources further stated that the outsourced facilities were currently non-functional, attributed to administrative and infrastructure shortcomings, adding that the project would be expanded with the outsourcing of more BHUs in the province based on the results gathered from the performance of 150 outsourced health facilites.