Govt to introduce legislation for nursing sector

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza has confirmed plans to introduce new legislation in the nursing sector.

In a press conference, Dr Mirza said in order to develop a healthcare delivery system related to nurses, the government would promote nursing institutions for imparting education up to graduation level.

He said that the government has decided to start nurses’ development programme to address the issues of shortage of nursing staff in hospitals across the country.

The special assistant further said that there was also a plan to launch a public health emergency model under which nurses would be assigned to perform duties at a different level of the health system during any emergency.

He said that this concept would enhance the existing health system to make it train to handle any emergency situation in the hospitals.

Dr Mirza said that there was also a plan to begin a one-year public health course at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for nurses.

At the first stage, 25 nurses would be chosen for this programme and they would be deployed at primary and secondary health care system of Islamabad Capital Territory, he added.

He informed that there was a shortage of nurses in the country against the requirement of 1.3 million nurses in Pakistan.

The special assistant said that there was no culture of utilising the services of nurses at community or rural health centre level, however, the PTI government has been working on a plan to utilise their services at the community level.

He further informed that an amount of Rs 50 billion had been allocated for making improvements in the health system.

Dr Mirza said that the epidemic had uncovered the health systems of the different hospital in all provinces, adding that the pandemic at the same time gives an opportunity to make changes in respective health systems.