LAHORE, Nov 6: The Punjab HealthCare Commission has said the private healthcare establishments are bound under relevant laws to get registered with the commission.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the PHC dispelled an impression that it had not taken on board the stakeholders, particularly the private healthcare establishments, before introducing its policies.

“The registration is a statutory obligation for all public and private sector healthcare establishments under the PHC Act 2010, promulgated by the provincial assembly of Punjab,” the statement reads.

The PHC statement came following an announcement by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) that the body did not deem it necessary for the private healthcare institutions to get registered with the Commission. The PMA also claims it was not taken on board with regard to PHC’s mandate and other modalities.

The statement said the PHC Act required the Commission to develop and implement Minimum Service Delivery Standards (MSDS) for improving the quality of healthcare service delivery in Punjab. Instead of enforcing these standards arbitrarily, the MSDS were developed by the Commission after a detailed and exhaustive process of consultations which involved leading academicians and clinicians from the public and private sector hospitals of Punjab and institutions like the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, National University of Sciences and Technology and Pakistan National Accreditation Council.

These standards were then reviewed and approved by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), the advocacy limb of the Commission.

The PHC says the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) as an important stakeholder and member of TAC gave its valuable inputs and endorsed the MSDS in the inaugural session of TAC last year.

It said the MSDS were neither prescriptive nor resource intensive as these only stipulate that the level of facilities being provided at any healthcare establishment should be commensurate with the services it was professing to provide.

As such there was no stipulation for inessential, expensive equipment at hospitals, and for the most part, the emphasis lies on proper documentation and developing adequate protocols and procedures, it said.

The commission’s efforts towards registration and licensing of healthcare establishments or the implementation of MSDS are all geared towards improving the quality of healthcare service delivery for the people of Punjab, it added.

“The commission considers professional registration with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council indispensable and welcomes the PMA’s disownment of unregistered doctors and the healthcare establishments that hire such doctors,” it says.