Multan: Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department South Punjab Dr. Mohammad Iqbal reviewed performance of Southern districts in Comprehensive EPI Review at local hotel here on Thursday.
The EPI Comprehensive Review was conducted with technical and financial support of the WHO. Besides Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Mohammad Iqbal, Director General Health Services South Dr. Meher Iqbal, Deputy Secretary Technical Dr. Maria Mumtaz, Director Programs dr. Rao Zafar, Director EPI Dr. Aihtesham ul Haq, Additional Director of EPI, NPO WHO Dr. Imran Qureshi, Immunization Officer UNICEF Dr. Qurat ul Ain and district officials were present. DHO-PS, DSCs, DSVs and EPI Focal Persons from districts attended the review.
The review of 11 districts of South Punjab was conducted in one batches. Earlier, the review of 25 districts of north and central was conducted in two batches on 19th and 20th December.
Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department South Mohammad Iqbal said digitalization is future of EPI. He asked DHMTS to ensure monitoring of EPI services with special focus on Outreach teams.
Director EPI Dr. Aihtisham ul Haq said the Comprehensive EPI Review provides an opportunity for introspection and soul searching as Punjab continues to learn lessons and improve weaknesses. He said, “The ranking criteria takes into account surveillance, data quality, supportive supervision, minutes of meetings, vaccination coverage, drop outs, EMR, reporting compliance, EPI-PEI Synergy and vLMIS. Punjab with nearly 90% immunization coverage as per TPVICS survey 2022 is leading country’s immunization efforts. We must make best possible efforts to achieve 100% coverage. We are grateful to the WHO for their support.”
WHO Technical Officer Dr. Imran Qureshi said that performance reviews are integral to achieving program goals. He said, “Our team shall continue to support EPI Punjab in technical areas wherever the government needs.”
Dr. Imran Qureshi also led intensive sesions on technical areas elaborating process and methodology for the evaluation of districts. He shared that digitalization, innovation and collaboration shall be key to the successes of EPI’s new initiatives like Evening Shift Vaccination, Labour Room Birth vaccination and public private partnerships. Next the facilitators presented district performance on KPIs. Challenges and way forward discussed. Selected districts also presented their performance. The programmatic review ended on vote of thanks by Dr. Mehr Iqbal to WHO for organizing the event and participants who contributed as one team to the success of EPI Program.
