Commissioner Karachi Syed Hassan Naqvi on Thursday met with the head and members of the Private Hospitals and Clinics Association and hospital representatives to extend support to strengthen the ongoing polio eradication efforts.
Officials said the private hospitals will assist the administration by collecting data on children vaccinated in their facilities and on parents, by helping to identify and follow up on missed children, and by supporting to achieve the targets of vaccination.
Commissioner Naqvi convened a meeting where it was mutually decided that private hospitals would record the data of children vaccinated in their facilities and share it with the administration.
Dr Junaid Ali Shah, president of the Private Hospital and Clinic Association, along with other representatives, assured Naqvi of provision of polio vaccination data and pledged full cooperation in all anti polio efforts.
The commissioner noted that the administration faces difficulties in obtaining vaccination data from private hospitals, and that this missing data hampers analysis of the polio vaccination target, hence requiring hospital cooperation. He urged private hospitals to play their role in the national effort to eradicate polio, and Dr Shah reaffirmed that the association and its members would fully support the government and administration in this fight.
The commissioner added that some parents prefer to have their children vaccinated in private hospitals, believing it to be safer, and that such vaccinations are part of the anti polio drive, but must be included in the data to help the administration assess the campaign’s progress.
He advised doctors to ask incoming patients whether a polio team has visited their home and whether the children have received polio drops, and to clarify any doubts about vaccines, explaining that these two questions will guide parents and help address their concerns. Participants were briefed on maintaining the cold chain for polio vaccines; saying that OPV is being stored and transported at +2 °C to +8 °C, with special teams monitoring temperature continuously to ensure vaccine safety.
