LAHORE – The Punjab government is organising a consultative workshop on the establishment of Punjab Health Commission (PHC) at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday.
The workshop is being organized by Punjab Health Department, in collaboration with Technical Assistance Management Agency (TAMA), funded by Department for International Development, UK.
The workshop’s basic objective is to identify key issues and challenges involved in the establishment of the PHC. It involves consultation with the stakeholders and healthcare professionals to ensure effective ways of ensuring registration and licensing of all healthcare providers, and to discuss the best possible way to set, implement and maintain Minimum Service Delivery Standards (MSDS) in both public and private hospitals.
In this regard, Punjab Health Sector Reforms Programme Project Director Farasat Iqbal said, “The key area which shall be focussed include registration of healthcare providers, licensing of healthcare establishments, implementation of standards in a phased manner, third party audit, accreditation, investigation of medical negligence and elimination of quackery.”
Farasat said the project will be implemented in three phases: (i) Establishing PHC, (ii) Setting up quality assessment indicators, (iii) Evaluating performance and conducting review of the systems vis-a-vis the established indicators. He added that currently an institutional structure for quality management in health sector was missing, hence, in an effort to institutionalise quality assurance and management within the health sector, both public and private, the Punjab government had decided to set up PHC.
He said that workshop would be attended by a diverse range of stakeholders including public representatives, senior policy makers, civil society representatives and health experts from private and public sectors. He said PHC’s establishment will improve the level of health service delivery in Punjab.
“This is the first time clinical governance is being introduced in Pakistan and it is expected that this will address the problems of quackery, poor service provision, lack of standardization in health sector, and will contribute to the well-being of the people of the province,” he said.
