Islamabad - Federal Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar on Thursday called for improvement in quality of healthcare for mother and newborn child, an official said.

The minister chaired a provincial consultative meeting on the theme of ‘Quality of Care around the Time of Birth’.

It was a one-day round table meeting that involved stakeholders from all provincial health departments, private, and developmental sectors; as well as the non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and representatives from the academia.

The meeting was attended by the Director General Health Dr Assad Hafeez and other Provincial health officials.

The minister said that in view of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the target must be to proactively reach women in the periphery as maternal deaths are higher due to lack of access and non-availability of health personnel and staff.

She urged to look into the social determinants of health and work with multiple stakeholders to address the issue of quality care around the time of birth. 

Think Tank emphasized on the Prime Minister’s National Health Program (PMNHP) that has helped to overcome the financial barriers; however, it is the need of time to gain back trust of the community through improving quality of care and its accountability at all levels in the health system of Pakistan.

To ensure quality of care around the time of birth it is essentially important to strengthen the health system and by focusing on improving the service delivery and its provision.

DG Health Dr Assad Hafeez marked that ensuring quality standards and institutionalizing them is the only solution to save mothers and the newborns.

Collective wisdom learned from all participants from all provinces of Pakistan can help the managers and the policy makers to re-orient the health policies towards providing quality care around the birth, by promoting exclusive breast feeding and by providing adequate family planning services to ensure quality care during the childbirth and beyond as framed by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) safe Childbirth Checklist in the health facilities across Pakistan.