Federal Minister for National Health Services Syed Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday inaugurated the Care1166 Health Complaint Management System at the Federal Directorate of Immunization, introducing a centralised digital platform where residents of Islamabad can register complaints about public health services and have them tracked until they are resolved. The initiative gives the capital a single helpline, 1166, for grievances about the Ministry of National Health Services and its attached departments and institutions, replacing a system in which patients often had to visit several government offices to be heard.
Under the new arrangement, a resident who has a complaint about a government hospital or dispensary in Islamabad can call 1166 and have the matter formally recorded without leaving home. The platform is meant to make it easier for citizens, particularly those in remote areas, to reach the relevant authorities by phone and to put their health concerns on record for action. Once a complaint is lodged, it will be automatically referred to the relevant department or the designated officer responsible for it, and its progress will be tracked from registration through to resolution.
A central dashboard has been introduced alongside the helpline to keep a record of every complaint, identify the officer responsible and document the steps taken to address the issue. The health minister will have access to the dashboard from his office, allowing him to review complaints directly and monitor how departments are responding to public concerns. The idea is that a complaint should no longer disappear into a file, and that the people responsible for fixing a problem can be held to account if nothing happens.
Beyond registering grievances, the system is designed to ensure that complaints receive proper follow-up and that the authorities’ efforts to resolve them can be monitored. The ministry said the data collected through the platform could also help identify recurring healthcare problems and disease trends in different areas by analysing the complaints received from the public. A cluster of complaints about the same hospital, the same medicine or the same kind of treatment would show up in the record, giving officials an early picture of where services are failing.
In its initial phase, the system will cover complaints concerning government hospitals and dispensaries in Islamabad, with designated officers at each facility responsible for ensuring that grievances are addressed promptly. The platform will maintain a centralised and traceable record of complaints related to hospitals, enabling the ministry to monitor public feedback and the quality of service delivery across government healthcare facilities in the capital. The ministry said the initiative is expected to be particularly beneficial for women, low-income households and marginalised communities, giving them a more accessible way to raise concerns directly with government authorities rather than depending on connections or repeated visits to offices.
The launch is the latest step in a wider effort to give patients in Pakistan somewhere to turn when public healthcare lets them down. Until now, the routes for complaining have been scattered. Complaints about a doctor’s conduct or qualifications go to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, which can suspend or revoke a licence. Hospital-level problems such as overcharging, expired medicines or unregistered staff belong to the provincial healthcare commissions, while in Islamabad the Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority covers the capital. Beneficiaries of the Sehat health card can raise complaints through the Pakistan Citizen Portal, which the government linked to the card scheme so that refusals of treatment, missing facilities and staff conduct could be reported in one place. Punjab, meanwhile, opened a Minister’s Complaint Cell in January 2025 with a toll-free number and a promise that complaints would be sent to the relevant district officer and resolved within 24 to 48 hours.
The Care1166 system itself was not put together overnight. On October 22, the health minister chaired a meeting to review the Health Complaint Management System and assess the performance of helpline 1166, with representatives of the relevant companies briefing him on how complaints would be registered, monitored and resolved. At that meeting he directed the authorities concerned to make the system more effective, reliable and public-friendly, so that citizens could get prompt solutions to their health concerns. The formal launch at the Federal Directorate of Immunization followed less than two weeks later, turning a system that had been under review into a service the public can now use.
Whether Care1166 lives up to its promise will depend on what happens after the phone call ends. A helpline is only as good as the response it produces, and the real test is how quickly officers act on complaints, how many cases reach a proper resolution, and whether the dashboard in the minister’s office is used to chase delays rather than simply record them. If the follow-up works as described, the system could give ordinary patients a genuine voice in how public hospitals are run, and give the ministry a steady flow of evidence about where care is falling short. For residents of Islamabad who have waited in corridors and queues to be heard, the number to remember is now a short one: 1166.
