Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that due to his continuous efforts on the improvement of child health, the provincial government has achieved a drastic reduction in child mortality from 104 to 46 per 1000 live births over a five-year period.
This he said while speaking at a program organized by ChildLife Foundation to celebrate the expansion of the Telemedicine Network to 100 hospitals located in every tahsil of the province here at Dr. Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi on Thursday. The program was attended by Minister Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Founder Trustee of ChildLife Foundation, Secretary Health Zulfiqar Shah, and others.
The CM said that the provincial government developed a partnership with ChildLife in 2010 with the objective to improve Children’s emergency care of over one million children annually.
Mr. Shah said that since 2018 he has developed a network of health facilities that no child in Karachi was more than 30 minutes away from world-class, 24/7, free emergency services. “We have established Emergency Response Services (ERs) in five govt hospitals of Karachi,” he said and added that in 2019 ERs were extended in five hospitals of the province – Karachi, Hyderabad, Shaheed Benazirabad, Larkana, Sukkur.Talking about Telemedicine Murad Ali Shah said that by 20022 Telemedicine Satellites were established in all districts all Taluka Headquarters, and now in 2023 in all Tehsils of Sindh.
Telemedicine Satellite Centers improve Quality as Children Emergency Specialists provide the consultation, it is accessible 24/7, saves critical time to treatment and financial burden on parents on traveling to major cities and on the job coaching of government doctors.
Talking about the achievement of the Sindh government in Children’s Health, the chief minister said that the UNICEF-supported MICS survey of 2021 reported a drastic reduction in child mortality in Sindh from 104 to 46 per 1000 live births over a 5-year period. “This is possible due to the focus of the Sindh government on Child health especially through public-private partnership programs. In 2018, Economist Intelligence Unit rated Sindh as the 6th best in partnerships in Asia.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that his government has extended full support to ChildLife, and he was proud of their achievements. “New buildings, renovations, and equipment are inputs as a first step, but our objective is the outcome – the quality healthcare,” he said and added that ChildLife was a prime example of using innovations to improve Quality and Scale.
“I am impressed with how Child Life is leveraging the synergy of partnerships to attain increased impact,” the Chief Minister said and added he was excited about what it could achieve. Mr. Shah said that the groundwork has been done; we have achieved significant success, but we have higher aspirations.
