A high profile meeting of the National Inter Agency Coordination Committee, chaired by Dr. Zafar Mirza, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health attended by Prime Minister Focal Person on Polio, Mr. Babar Bin Atta. An in-depth discussion on current state of affairs in the National and Provincial Immunization Program was carried out. The meeting was attended by Director General, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations Coordination, while officials of Health from federal and provincial EPI and PEI programs, donors and development partners also participated in the meeting. In line with the renewed health vision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Health Ministry has prepared a plan to integrate all vertical health programs to develop a model primary health care system while achieving Universal Immunization Coverage has been laid as a top priority agenda of the Ministry plan of action. National Program Manager, EPI presented the National Plan for UIC in Islamabad while all provinces and areas including AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan presented their plan of actions to achieve universal immunization coverage in their respective area as part of Universal Health Coverage (UHS) in next 3 years. Further, the provincial programme managers presented targets to achieve Universal Immunization and public sector financial management challenges they are facing in their respective provinces. SAPM and PMFP reviewed and scrutinized all work plans and stressed to integrate all parallel efforts to ensure optimal outcomes. Dr. Zafar Mirza took cognizance of contributions by the development partners to strengthen immunization programme of Pakistan, however he reiterated that children of Pakistan are our responsibility and the Government of Pakistan would ensure all efforts to contribute and expand immunization services in sustainable manner with domestic resources in coming years. Dr. Zafar Mirza also assured high level advocacy to provincial Chief Ministers to address all financial and operational bottlenecks at provincial Level. He further urged the Provincial Program Managers to share ground realities so that these issues can be addressed at highest forum. Mr. Babar Bin Atta, PMFP during his remarks also highlighted the need to integrate and start a joint awareness campaign for Polio and EPI to build trust in the community about importance of vaccinations and vaccine preventable diseases.
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