The Punjab government is organising a consultative workshop on the establishment of Punjab Health Commission (PHC) here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday (January 24). The workshop is being organised by Punjab Health Department, in collaboration with Technical Assistance Management Agency (TAMA) funded by Department for International Development, UK.
The basic objective is to identify key issues and challenges involved in the establishment and functioning of the Punjab Health Commission. It involves consultation with the stakeholders and healthcare professionals to ensure the 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 hospitals.
Punjab Health Sector Reforms Programme's Project Director Farasat Iqbal said here on Friday that Punjab Health Commission (PHC) would be a standard-setting and quality assurance body that aimed to improve health services delivery. "The key area which shall be focused 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," he explained.
Farasat further said that the project would be implemented in three phases: (I) establishing Punjab Health Commission, (ii) setting up quality assessment indicators and (iii) evaluating performance and conducting review of the systems vis-à-vis the established indicators. 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 Punjab Health Commission, he added. He said that workshop would be attended by a diverse range of stakeholders including public representatives, senior policy makers, representatives of civil society, health experts from private and public sectors.
Farasat was of the opinion that with the setting up of PHC, minimum service delivery standards would be developed and implemented which would 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 standardisation in health sector, and will contribute to the well-being of the people of the province," he concluded.