Punjab to restructure health sector

The Punjab health sector is ready to undergo major restructuring after the Punjab health health department formed committees to undertake a review of the service structure of the various cadres of medical professionals and suggest new measures to improve health delivery and impose a greater set of check on sections within the medical profession, Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to details, five committees each for the General Cadre, Specialist Cadre, Teaching Cadre, Management Cadre and Allied Professionals have been notified by the health secretary to propose solutions to the specific problems faced by each cadre in the medical profession and propose checks to improve the health delivery system.
Sources privy to the development further said that each committee consists of relevant medical experts such as doctors, medical superintendents and health EDOs. They are scheduled to submit their reports to the health secretary within a month. Besides reviewing the service structure of each cadre the committees have also been tasked with reviewing the control of medical colleges over finances of attached teaching hospitals under the Punjab Medical and Health Institutions Act, 2003, the sources added.
Evening OPD: They further revealed that the committee on general cadre is working on introducing an evening outpatient department (OPD) in public hospitals. “Public hospitals in Pakistan have one of the highest OPD turn over in the world. Evening OPD will help screening out patients to ease burden on consultants, who will be given extra allowance for OPD,” they said. The committee is also working on proposal to address slow promotion in the cadre.
Checks on ‘long vacations’:
Medical experts are said to propose new checks on “long vacations abroad” of doctors in the teaching cadre sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. They have suggested that the vacations be brought at par with students. “Private practice will be allowed during evening shifts of public hospitals as is being done at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology to ensure the availability of senior doctors for patients,” they said.
Developing a service structure:
The committee on the management cadre will develop a service structure for health EDOs, hospital medical superintendents, health district officers, which does not currently exist. “The committee is considering various proposals and even doctors, private professionals and civil servants are being considered for managerial positions,” they added.
A major revamp in the service structure of specialist cadre of doctors is, also, in the pipeline, as 75 percent of doctors remain stuck in grade 18 and only 25 percent in the higher grades. The sources said the department will change the ratio in Grade 18 to 50 percent, while an equal percentage for higher grades, in consideration of a long standing demand of doctors in the specialist cadre.
In addition to this, the committees are also working on introducing a new service structure for homeopaths and hakeems, besides addressing the issues facing by allied professionals such as dispensers, drug inspectors, physiotherapists and pharmacists.