PESHAWAR - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has initially created 1,000 new vacancies from BS-03 up to BS-18 for various health ser­vice delivery outlets in the merged tribal districts.

Recruitment process against the newly created vacancies has been started and it would be completed by July.

In addition, more than 1100 additional vacancies will also be created in the next phase, and overall more than 2300 new va­cancies would be created for strengthening the health sector in the merged districts.

It was revealed in a meeting held here on Thursday to review the progress on vari­ous initiatives of the provincial government taken to improve the health service deliv­ery system in the merged tribal districts with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair.

The meeting was given a detailed pres­entation about the progress so far made on the strengthening of various public sec­tor hospitals, provision of necessary equip­ments and medicines to those hospitals, creation of new vacancies for the hospi­tals, recruitments against the already cre­ated vacancies and various other initiatives launched under the Accelerated Implemen­tation Plan (AIP).

Regarding the approved schemes for strengthening healthcare system in the merged districts, it was informed that the schemes included upgradation of DHQ hos­pital Khaar Bajawar from category B to A, upgradation of DHQ Hospital Parachinaar Kurrum from category C to B, establish­ment of category D Hospital at Sub-divi­sion Darra, establishment of Thalassemia Center at the DHQ Hospital at Miraanshah, establishment of Hospital and Medical Col­lege in South Waziristan, establishment of category B hospital in Orakzai, strength­ening of Extended Program of Immuniza­tion (EPI), provision of Standard Medical Equipments and Medicines to all the sec­ondary level hospitals, provision of express power supply line to all the district head­quarters hospitals, appointment of special­ist doctors in hospitals across the merged districts.

The Chief Minister directed the highups of health department to expedite recruit­ment process against the already created vacancies as well as creation of new vacan­cies and added that timeline be given for the timely completion of all the recruitment process.

He also directed the concerned quarters to expedite work on the upgradation of hos­pitals and provision of Standard Medical Equipments to the hospitals in the merged area and remarked that any sort of unnec­essary delay in the implementation of these schemes would not be tolerated.