DHDC Centers

The Divisional Health Development Centres (DHDCs) serve as regional hubs for in-service training, continuing medical education, and capacity building of Health Department staff across the divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They extend PHSA's training mandate beyond Peshawar, bringing workshops and refresher courses closer to health workers in every division. PHSA currently operates four functional DHDCs — Abbottabad, Swat, Chitral, and Bannu — each serving its own region of the province.
1. DHDC Abbottabad
Divisional Health Development Centre (DHDC) Abbottabad is one of the four functional Divisional Health Development Centres administered by the Provincial Health Services Academy.

Like its sister centres across the province, it traces its origins to the network of DHDCs launched in the 1990s under the World Bank-funded Family Health Project. When that project concluded in December 1999, DHDC Abbottabad — together with the province's other DHDCs, Nursing Schools, and Paramedical Training Institutes — was placed under the full administrative and financial control of PHSA.

The Centre now serves as a regional training hub for the Hazara region, delivering in-service training, on-the-job orientation, and continuing professional development for serving Health Department staff, with particular emphasis on supervisory and management capacity-building alongside technical refresher training for paramedical and nursing personnel already posted in the field.

2. DHDC Swat-
Divisional Health Development Centre (DHDC) Swat is one of PHSA's four functional Divisional Health Development Centres, serving the Malakand region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It forms part of the province-wide network of DHDCs established in the 1990s under the World Bank-funded Family Health Project and formally absorbed into the Provincial Health Services Academy's administrative and financial control in December 1999.

DHDC Swat conducts in-service and on-the-job training for Health Department personnel, with an emphasis on management-oriented courses for supervisory staff and refresher training for paramedical, nursing, and public health cadre already serving in the district.

3. DHDC Chitral
Divisional Health Development Centre (DHDC) Chitral is one of PHSA's four functional DHDCs, serving Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's northernmost district.

Along with the province's other Divisional Health Development Centres, it originated under the World Bank-funded Family Health Project of the 1990s and was brought under PHSA's full administrative and financial oversight once that project concluded in December 1999.

Given Chitral's remote and mountainous terrain, the Centre plays an important role in bringing in-service training, continuing education, and management capacity-building closer to Health Department staff who would otherwise have to travel to Peshawar for such courses.

4. DHDC Bannu-
Divisional Health Development Centre (DHDC) Bannu operates as a sub-office of the Provincial Health Services Academy, Peshawar, with the specific mandate of building the capacity of Health Department human resources at the district level in Bannu and the surrounding region.

Like the Academy's other Divisional Health Development Centres, it grew out of the World Bank-funded Family Health Project of the 1990s and was formally integrated into PHSA once that project closed in December 1999.

DHDC Bannu delivers in-service training, on-the-job orientation, and continuing professional development for serving health staff, helping the Academy extend its training reach into southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.