PESHAWAR: Health department is outsourcing three regional blood centres (RBCs) to a private organisation, Indus Hospital and Health Network, to ensure provision of safe and prompt blood transfusion to patients at the public sector hospitals free of cost.

The initiative is part of the series under which health outlets are contracted out to private firms in line with the public-private partnership (PPP) programme. The RBCs in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan and Abbottabad will be run by e Karachi-based IH&HN after winning contract floated by Health Foundation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa four months ago.

The agreement being signed with the private party under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public-Private Partnership Act, 2020 is meant to ensure prompt supply of blood and its products to 16 hospitals in Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan and Swabi, nine hospitals in Tank, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Hangu, Miramshah, Mirali, Wana and Dera Ismail Khan and seven hospitals in Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan.

Health Foundation is mandated to outsource public health facilities to private firms having experience in operating the health system with a view to improve their performance and cater to the healthcare needs of people. The foundation is likely to sign the agreement with IH&HN next week after approval by the Board of Governors.

Agreement likely to be signed with Karachi-based hospital network next week

The project includes operations and maintenance of RBCs, which would generate blood and its products and would serve as the storage and distribution centres for the hospitals in their respective areas.

More than 180 staffers, who got regularised recently, of the three RBCs fear about their services after the five-year agreement to be signed next week. However, HF Managing Director Dr Adnan Taj told Dawn that under the contract, the jobs of the employees would stay permanent.

He said that two organisations including Indus Hospital and Health Network and Fatimid Foundation were shortlisted and the former was offered the contract. He said that the firm would get Rs2,585 per bag in Peshawar while 15,510 would be paid for retrieving six components from one bag.

The employees of the centres say that the same process costs on Rs1,200 presently. In Dera Ismail Khan, the firm will get Rs3, 661 and in Abbottabad Rs3,838 for the process.

“The present charges are more than what employees say but now the Peshawar entre would cover 16 hospitals instead of three. Approximately, 50,000 bags will be collected per year,” said Dr Adnan.

He said that the move was meant to collect voluntary blood at public hospitals through scaling public awareness regarding donation of blood, its transportation in temperature-controlled vehicles having loggers, thermometer, cold chain alerts, segregation, packaging, storing and management of intra hospital transfers in addition to enhancing hospital-based blood banks and intra-hospital carriers with loggers and temperature control.

“It also includes advocacy aiming to do away with the practice of transfusing whole blood instead of only one component required by the patient,” he said.

Dr Adnan also rejected the employees’ claim that more than Rs500 million would be spent on RBC Peshawar after its outsourcing than the present Rs70 million being spent annually on it. He said that there was no specific amount allocated to the partner organisation and payment would be based on number of bags it provided to the designated hospitals.

“In the first phase, blood transfusion services will be operationalised in accordance to national and international guidelines completely through RBCs. The patients would get screened components of blood not only to reduce blood-borne disease but also to cut the number of referrals for surgeries to the already overburdened medical teaching institutions in the regions,” he said.

He said that in second phase, the project would cover all tehsil headquarters hospitals and patients would get safe screened blood free of cost there.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2022