Federal Minister for National Health Services Syed Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday directed officials to improve the efficiency of the 1166 Health Helpline so that the public receives timely guidance and healthcare-related complaints are resolved promptly. The minister was given a detailed briefing on the installation of the 1166 Health Helpline dashboard, its technical infrastructure, and its operational functions. The briefing also covered the mechanisms for registering, monitoring, and addressing the complaints that are received through the helpline, which means that the review looked at the whole path of a complaint from the moment a caller reports it until it is settled.
Speaking on the occasion, Mustafa Kamal said that providing citizens with a modern, effective, and transparent digital system is essential for resolving healthcare-related issues promptly. He directed the concerned officials to make the helpline more functional and effective in order to ensure timely guidance, improved services, and swift redressal of public complaints. The directions come a week after the minister inaugurated the Care1166 Health Complaint Management System at the Federal Directorate of Immunization, a centralised digital platform through which residents of Islamabad can register complaints about the Ministry of National Health Services and its attached departments and institutions by calling the single number 1166, without having to visit different offices.
Under the Care1166 system, complaints are automatically forwarded to the concerned departments or designated officers, and their progress is monitored from registration to resolution. A central dashboard keeps a record of every complaint, the officer to whom it was assigned, and the action taken to resolve it. The minister can also review complaints and their progress through the dashboard from his office, which allows direct oversight of how the relevant departments respond to public concerns. In its initial phase, the system is open to residents of Islamabad, and the dashboard that was presented during the latest briefing is the part of the platform that records and tracks the complaints for the ministry.
The 1166 number is not new to the public. It was established in November 2019 as the Sehat Tahaffuz helpline under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and the Federal Directorate of Immunization, and it gives families guidance on immunisation, polio, and other priority health concerns. According to a UNICEF account, the helpline received approximately 27 million calls between its launch and December 2025. The latest direction of the minister adds a complaint redressal role to that established service, and the officials have been asked to make sure that callers get clear guidance and that their complaints do not remain unresolved.
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