Health ministry rolls out 1166 portal for digital complaints tracking

ISLAMABAD: Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal has inaugurated the Health Complaint Management System, describing it as one of the most important initiatives in the history of the Ministry of Health and a major step towards making the public health system more accessible and accountable.

The ministry has introduced the CARE 1166 portal under the idea of “one number, one record and one monitoring system”. In its first phase, the system has been launched in Islamabad, where citizens can call 1166 free of cost to obtain information about health services and register complaints related to the Ministry of Health and all its attached departments.

Speaking at the launch, Mustafa Kamal said citizens would no longer need to visit different government offices to get their complaints heard. He said a person facing illness or distress would now be able to convey his or her grievance to the relevant authorities from home through a single helpline number.

The minister said the purpose of the system was not only to listen to complaints but also to ensure their resolution. Every complaint will be automatically forwarded to the relevant officer or health department, while all stages — from action on the complaint to its disposal — will be formally monitored.

He said a complete record would be maintained of each complaint, including the officer to whom it was assigned and the progress made on it. A central dashboard has been established for this purpose, enabling the health minister to review complaints and progress from his office.

According to the ministry, the dashboard will also help identify diseases and health problems being reported from different areas. The data generated through the system is expected to present the real situation of health-related issues across the country and support future policy-making.

Mustafa Kamal said the project had been conceived to provide every citizen in Pakistan with an easy way to bring health-related problems to the government’s notice. He said people in remote areas would also be able to register complaints through a phone call, while the system would make it easier for women, the poor and deprived communities to have their voices reach official institutions.

The federal minister said that in the past an ordinary citizen often had to approach an MNA, MPA, minister, officer, district health officer or a government office to get a complaint addressed, which was not possible for everyone. He said he still received hundreds of calls from people he did not personally know but who were facing issues related to health facilities.

He asked how many people in a population of 26 crore could have the personal phone number of the health minister. “The answer to this basic question is the Health Complaint Management System,” he said, adding that those without access to influential persons or officials would now have a formal platform to seek help.

Mustafa Kamal said that during the last 79 years, an effective mechanism could not be provided through which an ordinary citizen could directly communicate a health-related complaint to the government. He said the new system was meant to give a voice to people whose difficulties often did not reach the relevant authorities.

The minister said every complaint would not only be heard but also understood, recorded and sent to the concerned authorities. He said a special team had been formed to monitor complaint redressal and review the performance of relevant officers.

He termed the initiative a complete mechanism for monitoring, follow-up and accountability, rather than merely a complaint registration system. He said it was an expression of accepting responsibility and being answerable to the people.

Under the system, heads of 39 relevant wings of the Ministry of Health will have real-time access to complaints through applications on mobile phones and screens installed in offices. As soon as a call centre agent completes a citizen’s call, the complaint will appear on the screen of the responsible officer. The same complaint will also be available to the health minister and the monitoring team.

Each complainant will be issued a unique digital tracking number. Through this number, citizens will be able to check the status of their complaint after two days, four days, a month or even a year and see what action was taken on the matter.

The call centre will operate round the clock in three shifts. The minister said illness and distress did not follow office hours, and a citizen could face a problem related to medical facilities at night as well. He told call centre staff to treat the responsibility not merely as a job but as service to humanity, and to listen to callers with respect and patience.

The system will also receive complaints related to public hospitals and dispensaries. A central mechanism has been introduced for the redressal of complaints concerning Islamabad’s government hospitals. For every complaint, a designated responsible officer will be appointed in the relevant hospital.

Mustafa Kamal said the new arrangement would create a central and traceable record of hospital complaints, helping the Ministry of Health directly monitor citizen grievances and service delivery in hospitals. The ministry will be able to review the number, nature and progress of complaints in an effective manner.

The minister said the project was being started from Islamabad and would be expanded to the whole country in the next phase. He said the project was worth around Rs400 million and had been developed with the cooperation of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman and his team, along with other relevant institutions, so that remote areas could also be connected with the system.

Giving an example, he said if a poor citizen living in a far-flung area of Thar faced a problem related to health facilities and could not reach the DHO, health secretary, health minister or chief minister, the citizen would be able to call 1166 and register a complaint. The complaint could then be conveyed from the district authorities to the provincial level, and the concerned officer could be made answerable for redressal.

He described the initiative as a “silent revolution”, saying it would provide people direct access to their government without agitation or noise. He said the performance of the ministry would now be judged through digital records and real data, not merely through claims.

Mustafa Kamal said the data obtained through the system would also be important for health policy. If a sudden rise in similar complaints or calls was recorded from a particular area, it could serve as an early indication of an outbreak or serious health issue. He said timely identification would allow the government to act before a problem became severe or widespread.

He said the initiative would bring a basic change in the working style of the Ministry of Health. The ministry would no longer remain limited to monitoring vaccination or other routine activities, but would also directly monitor the daily health-related problems and complaints of ordinary citizens.

The minister thanked the PTA chairman, IBX, the Ministry of Health team, the joint secretary administration, relevant authorities and UNICEF for their cooperation in giving practical shape to the system.

Referring to his earlier experience, Mustafa Kamal said that during his tenure as Karachi mayor from 2005 to 2010, a similar complaint management system had been introduced for civic services, through which complaints relating to water, sewerage, cleanliness, garbage lifting and other municipal issues were sent directly to the relevant departments.

He said the same concept was now being implemented in the health sector through modern digital technology in a more effective manner. He added that when the health minister was now asked about the problems being faced by people in institutions under the ministry, the answer would not be verbal alone; the data on screens would provide complete details of each complaint, its nature, the concerned officer and the action taken.

Mustafa Kamal said the Health Complaint Management System was an effort to give citizens a voice, bring accountability to government and ensure transparency in the health system. He said the objective was that no citizen anywhere in Pakistan should be deprived of a health-related right merely because there was no one to hear his or her voice.