KARACHI: Sindh Health Department has failed to make operational the ‘Sindh Healthcare Commission’, a regulatory authority to register and monitor public and private hospitals and control quackery in the province, despite the passage of four years due to financial and other problems.
The Sindh Assembly passed the bill into law on February 24th, 2014, and the Sindh governor accorded assent to it on March 19th, 2014. The bill was aimed at improving healthcare quality, protecting patients’ rights and doctors’ safety at healthcare centres, monitoring of public and private hospitals and ending quackery.
According to the law, all private hospitals, clinics, maternity homes, blood banks and laboratories throughout the province would have been registered with the commission but it has not been started despite the passage of four years.
The Sindh Health Department had appointed Professor Dr Tipu Sultan as chairman of the Sindh Healthcare Commission, while Dr Minhaj Qidwai was appointed the CEO, but due to lack of office space and some financial problems the commission could not be made operational yet.
However, healthcare commissions are successfully operational in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan Medical Association and other representatives of doctor bodies have expressed reservations on the delay in implementation of Sindh Healthcare Commission and urged the authorities concerned to better the work on law enforcement in the province.
