LAHORE – The Punjab government claimed on Monday that that proposed healthcare commission will be an independent and separate entity, completely free of external influence by government and other channels.
“We will appoint a chairman of the commission and separate commissioners, who would be non-controversial and professionals of the highest integrity”, Punjab Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad said adding that the commission would neither recruit serving or retired officers nor have any direct operational link with the Punjab government to make it completely free of political influence.
He was addressing a consultative stakeholders’ workshop on “Establishment of Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC)” at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday. The workshop was organised by the Punjab Health Department in collaboration with the Technical Assistance Management Agency (TAMA) funded by the UK Department for International Development.
The secretary said that the PHC would not go into punitive mode right away rather it would point out deficiencies and give sufficient time, keeping in view ground realities, for ensuring provision of required facilities and staff in public and private-sector health facilities to curb illegal and unethical practices in the medical profession and ensure effective delivery of healthcare services to patients.
He said that intention of the Punjab government was not to take over private health establishments but ensure an independent regulatory mechanism to get an efficient healthcare system. Fawad said that more than 70 percent of population of Punjab was accessing private healthcare facilities and share of public-sector in service delivery had gone down over the years. He maintained that the biggest issue in establishment of PHC was appointment of right kind of human resource for operating it.
“This cannot be done without consultation with all stakeholders, especially those from the private-sector”, he said adding that the Punjab government was searching for people who would come in a transparent manner and run this commission. Punjab Health Parliamentary Secretary Saeed Elahi said that merit was the topmost priority of the CM.
He assured that the commission would be formed in a transparent manner after consultation with all stakeholders. Dispelling the popular impression, he said that no retired bureaucrat would be engaged and the commission would fully act as a professional body. TAMA team leader Howard Lyons said that success of the commission depended on three factors including leadership, accountability and teamwork. He said that medical negligence was a major issue all over the world.
“Nearly 0.2 million people die every year in the US from medical errors. In fact, in the US, hospital infections kill more people each year than AIDS, breast cancer and car accidents combined”, he informed adding that such figures were not available in Pakistan due to lack of proper health information system.
He said that PHC would be a standard-setting and quality assurance body, including regulation, for the whole health sector. “The commission will do this mainly through standardisation, quality assurance, institutional development and establishment of a system of accreditation and capacity building for continuous professional development”, Lyons explained.
TAMA international clinical governance expert Dr Carol Barker said that although a number of activities were already taking place in health facilities in Punjab including clinical audits, peer reviews, performance reviews and medical records developments, what was lacking was corporate governance to make it possible and tie these things and other quality assurance activities into an organised process.
The workshop was structured around a combination of plenary sessions and breakout groups. The basic objective was to identify key issues and challenges involved in the establishment and operationalisation of the PHC. It involved consultation with stakeholders and healthcare professionals to ensure most 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-sector hospitals.
The key area which came under focus included 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.
