KMU hosts Health Care in Danger 1st Community of Concerns Meeting

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in collaboration with Khyber Medical University (KMU) organized a round table meeting in Peshawar to form a formal Community of Concern (CoC) for safeguarding health care in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The meeting was attended by officials from Department of Health KP, KMU, Medical Teaching Institutes, Private Hospitals, Health Care Commission, Public Health Association KP, District Government, Police, Rescue 1122 and representatives of civil society. It is worth mentioning that the CoC is a consortium of public and private sector organizations and individuals working together to improve the protection of healthcare providers from violence. It intends to develop coordination between relevant stakeholders to collaborate for protection of healthcare in KP.

Addressing the meeting the Head of Sub Delegation of the ICRC in Peshawar Patrick Huser welcomed all the participants and shared the global scale of Health Care in Danger (HCiD) Initiative as a transversal initiative.  He said that HCiD in Pakistan is a dynamic, progressive and developed program and we are looking forward to strengthening it further. Dr. Mirwais Khan, the Head of HCiD Initiative in Pakistan, elaborated the thematic areas and key findings of the initiative. He said that the HCiD was launched in Pakistan in 2014 with the aim to increase protection of health care against violence.

The Special Secretary for Health in KP Dr. Syed Farooq Jamil said that the government of KP is working to introduce initiatives for the protection of healthcare workers and assured full cooperation for the legislation and policy making process related to HCiD program in KP. Dr. Faryal Baddia, the Project Manager of HCiD initiative at the ICRC Peshawar presented the concept of Community of Concern (CoC). She said that it is an alliance of organizations working together to improve the protection of healthcare from violence.

Dr. Muhammad Naseem Khan, Director KMU-IPH&SS said that it is very important to establish Working Group (WG) at local level for the CoC. He presented the thematic areas of HCiD CoC and its working group. The objective and scope of the WG is to work through the challenges under the given thematic areas. A quarterly meeting at the KMU was proposed for effective coordination and collaboration. The Dean KMU Faculty of Public Health Prof Dr. Zia ul Haq in his closing remarks said that the Government of KP is committed to bring reforms in health sector for improving its services and these efforts will pave the way for improved behavior from service seekers.#