A German lawyer and expert in public administration is likely to take-over charge as Chief Executive of the largest public sector hospital (LRH) of the provincial metropolis of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) shortly.
The new Chief Executive Johan Kraise, by profession is a lawyer with Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Howard University; USA has 25 years experience of running the affairs of health facilities in United States and Germany.
"The summary in this connection has already been sent to Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani for approval," disclosed no other than the young and innovative NWFP Minister for Health Inayatullah Khan. The chief executive, he said would be initially appointed on contract basis for one year. The contract in future would be reviewed on the basis of his performance.
The provincial government, the health minister said is reforming health facilities and the posting of foreign experts, as chief executive of the big hospitals was also part of it. However, he ruled out probable increase in the service charges of the public sector hospitals.
Regarding hue and cry of certain quarters, he ruled out the privatisation of teaching hospitals. "Teaching hospitals are not handed over to any national or international agencies. They remain in government's ownership as autonomous bodies," he made it clear in unequivocal terms.
GTZ, a German non-governmental technical assistance organisation, he said had made commitment for provision of assistance in the system while another German institute, KFW would provide financial assistance in this regard. The assistance would be in form of grant and provincial government would not have to bear burden of any kind of foreign loan.
In response to a question on the posting of foreign chief executive, he said that the ongoing reforms in health sector of the province necessitated it saying the government was on way forward towards conversion of LRH into a Regional Centre of Excellence. The establishment of the centre would also help to create opportunity of bringing improvement in the skill of workers of health sectors in the province.
In reply to a question regarding salary package of the foreign chief executive, the provincial minister said that under NWFP Medical Health Institutions and Regulation of Health Care Services Ordinance 2002, the government has also fixed an amount of Rs 0.15000 million as salary for him. However, he said that in case of foreign expert GTZ would bear the extra-burden of expenses in this regard.
The Chief Executive would also be required to ensure that the quality of health care provided is in line with national and international standards and is satisfactory to the patients. The business plan would outline the approach of achieving the accreditation of LRH with a national and internationally reputed organisation for quality in health care and medical education.
The Chief Executive would report to the Department of Health on regular basis regarding medical, financial performances and quality health care services and utilisation of human resources of the hospitals. The first such report, the minister said would be due by the end of the financial year 2007-08.
The new chief executive would be responsible to compile baseline data to each of the indicators and agree with department of health on annual targets.
The minister said that pharmacy shops have been established under endowment fund with the clear objective of generating income for provision of health care to the patients and supporting poor and needy patients suffering from 8 chronic diseases.
The provincial government, Inayatullah has also decided the conversion of the Casualty Unit of LRH into Accident and Emergency (A&D) Department at LRH on the pattern of Mayo Hospital Lahore and Jinnah Hospital Lahore. The new department to be headed by a director and would be allocated separate budget.
The director would have the qualification and experience of international level medicines and must have worked as a consultant at international level. He would be attached to the chief executive of the hospital and would exercise all powers essential for smooth functioning of the department.
He assured that the foreign chief executive would not go for the resolution of the problems through the use of force, rather would work for bringing changes in the system. Following the trend of developed countries, they would also go for offering flexible duty hours to health experts.
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