The government of the province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has come forward and banned the usage of smartphones and tablets for the staff and management of all public health facilities all over the province to ensure the people of Kpk that an efficient and effective service is being provided to them. It was announced by the Minister of Health Dr Hisham Inam ullah Khan on Tuesday in which he issued a policy regarding the use of smartphones and electronic equipment in public health facilities through a notification banning any such use in the work-place.
According to the notification it was seen that it was issued with great concerns regarding the staff members and their usage of electronic media. It was concluded that such actions leads to a compromise on services being provided to the people and can in-turn be unsafe. Furthermore it has been noticed that service delivery is neglected most of the time because the workers are busy talking to people or are indulged in the social media communications and chatting. These actions in turn create frustration amongst the patient and accompanying attendants against the healthcare providers and public sector facilities which in turn create awkwardness between both the management of the public health sector facilities and the service providers.
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In the presence of such conditions and logical reasoning, it was decided to add the following in the notification
- That use of all smartphones or tablets is strictly prohibited in all health facilities in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Staff are eligible to use ordinary phones or phones which do not have the service of Internet on them, for official use and for emergency calls only
- In the facilities where service providers and trainees use the internet facility for Patient Management, Internet connectivity should be provided on desktops for patient Management to be carried out in an effective way for quality efficiency
Finally the notification states that the department of Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) will be monitoring operations in compliance with this policy and will initiate disciplinary actions against any members who do not comply with this policy. Furthermore all hospitals have been directed to apprise the minister on the misuse of phones and actions taken against violators in the health facilities
