ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi has approved the expansion of Health Services Academy (HSA) as five more departments will be establishment to ensure quality healthcare.
Speaking at a ceremony, Vice Chancellor HSA, Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan said, “Under the chairmanship of President Arif Alvi, the HSA Senate has approved the establishment of five more departments at the varsity including Health Economics, Digital Health, Public Health Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine, Environmental Health and Climate Change and Health Policy Planning and Management.”
Dr. Shahzad maintained that they needed trained and qualified faculty to run the departments; therefore, they were hiring experts from abroad and also signing MoUs with the institutes like ILE to train HSA faculty for enhancing collaboration and minimizing bottlenecks and challenges.
He added that Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) and Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) have already been established at the academy following approval from the academic council and the syndicate of the varsity.
After signing the MoU with Institute of Leadership Excellence (ILE) at the academy, Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan expressed hope that the partnership between the institutes would help improve the quality of life in the country.
He informed that they were making an action plan for ethical marketing of pharmaceuticals in addition to control the irrational prescription practices in the country, adding that consultative meetings with all the stakeholders were underway to come up with an implementable action plan to safeguard the interests of patients in the country.
Speaking at the occasion, President ILE, Haroon Qasim said the institute had trained over 1,000 healthcare professionals throughout the country in the areas of healthcare leadership, management skills, patient safety and communication, adding that they were also promoting research through different initiatives including the Health Research Advisory Board.
He asserted that as evident by multiple studies and backed by reliable data, healthcare professionals in Pakistan were indeed the best in their fields, professionally trained, and best suited to offer quality treatment to the patients.
The Chief Editor of Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences Shaukat Ali Jawaid hoped that the memorandum of understanding signed between HSA and ILE would be beneficial for the health sector and improve the quality of healthcare facilities and services in the country.