Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has asked the provincial health department to hold special training courses for all its grades 19 and 20 doctors to equip them with managerial skills. A decision for the training of doctors was reached during the chief minister's meeting with a delegation of the technical advisory group (TAG) on the eradication of polio for Pakistan on Wednesday. The delegation included high-ups from different international and national organizations, who had been discussing the latest sustained outbreak of the polio virus in the province that has affected 10 children since January, 2008, on June 24 and 25 in the city. A source privy to the meeting said the delegation told the chief minister about the technical problems hindering the control of the polio virus in the province and recommended certain measures. In view of the fact that doctors who are also assigned some managerial and administrative jobs as well during their career at the provincial headquarters or in different public health projects and health-care facilities, including provincial and district hospitals and other field programmes, most of the time lacked the quality of a good leader or executer and as such needed to be trained on the administrative side so that they could handle the situation appropriately and get the desired results. The chief minister agreed that all the grade 19 and 20 officers of the health department should be made to undergo the special training of six to eight weeks compulsorily in stages, the source added. The chief minister also expressed concern over the reported misuse of logistic facilities and vehicles procured under various health offices and national and provincial programmes, including polio immunization, lady health visitors and reproductive health and population programmes, and asked the health department to get the misplaced vehicles recovered from all political and non-political quarters at the earliest and use them in the right way. The chief minister has also asked the department to ensure that Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) centres were established at all government health facilities. The CM was told that about one third of the health units and hospitals lacked the immunisation set-ups and relevant staff. During the meeting, it was also approved that independent monitoring of polio-related activities should be ensured and the committee constituted for the purpose at the district and town levels should comprise one representative each from the WHO, Unicef and the Sindh health department and one member from the district or town health facility not related to the area under examination. It was also resolved that the polio steering committees at provincial and district levels would be made functional and progress reports would be shared with the TAG. Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmad said an effective and dedicated campaign would soon be launched against polio. Earlier, during their formal meeting in a hotel, the team of polio experts, who had gathered on an emergency basis to review the workings of the existing national and international polio managers in Sindh and guide them further to achieve zero polio reporting, held the district leadership as the key to give the polio eradication drive a final push.