PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has planned to spend Rs1.7 billion to improve maternal and child health services in the province as part of an integrated healthcare programme, which also focuses on immunisation, nutrition, and training of lady health workers.

`For the first time, an integrated (health) programme has been made to avoid duplication of activities. All four programmes will get separate amount of money as a revised PC-1 is being made for them,` head of the MNCH programme Dr Sahib Gul told Dawn.

He said the programme launched by the federal government in 2008 had deployed 1,340 community midwives, 46 women doctors and 98 LHWs in hospitals to give emergency obstetric care (EmOC) to women but it required funds to improve its services.

`Due to the province`s financial assistance, we look forward to implement our plan to strengthen and expand scope of work,` he said.

Dr Sahib Gul said the MNCH activities, which had suffered due to the shortage of federal funds, would get finances for medicines, training and equipments to ensure availability of services to mothers and neonates.

He said the government was implementing the programme with the monetary assistance of the Multi-Donor Trust Programme under which the district health officers and MNCH coordinators would identify gaps in mother and child health services to ensure 50 percent utilisation of facilities by women and children.

Sources in the health department said the MNCH programme would continue its activities to prevent deaths of mothers and newborns and that ambulance services would be provided in selected healthfacilities for prompt referral of complicated delivery cases to major facilities.

They said the government was also in consultation with the USAID for continuation of a mother and child healthcare project in seven districts of Malakand division.

The sources said the project began in 2012 but suffered after the ban on the Save the Children, which worked on behalf of USAID and assisted DHOs, in targeted districts, but it was being resumed to provide additional support to the militancy-hit districts.

They said the bidding for project was in progress to select NGOs to assist district heath.

`We aim to developed Comprehensive EmOC services and provide care to both and child in government hospitals,` a source said.

The officials said the programme consisted of the provision of trained staff, medicines, and equipment to the facilities at rural level in collaboration with the government.

They said Malakand division needed more assistance to ensure that pregnancy-related cases are handled by trained birth attendants and if needed those requiring tertiary care be transported to the nearest facility.

The officials said for better EmOC services, ambulance services were very important to save patients from delivery complications.

They said it all depended on the requirement of districts as many facilities needed ambulances.

The Taliban militants had snatched ambulances from the health department and destroyed 14 health facilities in Swat district from 2007 to 2009.

They had also threatened health workers, especially women nurses and staff, against working with men.

The officials said the awareness of mother and child health was also part of the programme.