LAHORE: The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) has accelerated the process for implementation of the Minimum Service Delivery Standards (MSDS) through expediting registration and licencing of all healthcare establishments (HCEs).

According to a press release issued on Monday, the HCEs falling within the PHC’s regulatory purview include hospitals, clinics of family physicians, homeopaths, hakeems, nursing homes, MCH centres, clinical and pathology laboratories and diagnostic centres, physiotherapy and acupuncture clinics.

It says so far 6,500 HCEs have been registered, while 2,209 provisionally licenced by the PHC. A total of 400 HCEs has been inspected in Punjab. Legal proceedings against more than 1,200 quacks in different districts of Punjab have been initiated at the PHC’s behest.

Around 50 customized capacity-building workshops had been held by the PHC to assist HCEs in implementation of service delivery standards. In this regard, a three-day workshop, from March 31 to April 2, was also organised in Gujranwala to train participants from 16 public and 16 private sector hospitals. This was followed by another workshop in the same district for homeopaths on April 3.

Similarly, in order to raise awareness about the PHC’s mandate, a seminar was conducted for 150 homeopathic practitioners in Sargodha which was also attended by the members of the National Council for Homeopathy.

Pakistan Association for Eastern Medicine has also organised a seminar at the Hamdard Centre to apprise ‘Tabeebs’ of PHC’s mandate to regulate the quality of healthcare services.

The PHC received around 40 requests for registration and licencing at the end of the seminar.

Health indicators: Punjab Health Director General Dr Zahid Pervaiz has said health indicators, including EPI coverage, have visibly improved in the last four months which will help the government prevent and eradicate communicable diseases, especially polio.

Addressing inaugural ceremony of training of the master trainers for EPI supervisors at the Provincial Health Development Centre (PHDC) on Monday, he said the strict monitoring of immunisation by E-Vaccs system had improved the performance of vaccinators.

He said that immunisation of children was not only an official duty but also a national responsibility of vaccinators and polio workers, according to a handout.

Dr Zahid the PHDC was playing a very important role in training and capacity building of officials.

Dr Suhail Saqlain briefed about the training workshops.

The training workshop will continue till April 23.

In the end, the Health director general distributed shields and souvenirs among the participants.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2015

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