Healthcare delivery system improves, says IPH dean

LAHORE : Dean Institute of Public Health Prof Dr Zarfishan Tahir has said that the main objective of the centre of the healthcare system is to ensure all the necessary measures for the provision of treatment and quality healthcare to the patients so that the patients can easily access to the treatment facilities in the hospitals.

She expressed her satisfaction and said that the Punjab Healthcare Commission organises training programmes from time to time to make all the people related to the health sector aware of the necessary rules and regulations in this regard. Thanks to the measures and monitoring policy of the PHC there is improvement in the healthcare delivery system and the administrative affairs of the hospitals are also improving.

Dr Zarfishan said that the IPH would continue to provide its platform to all relevant institutions and stakeholders to strengthen the healthcare delivery system of the province and improve public health.

She expressed these views while addressing the opening ceremony of a two-day training workshop for health professionals and health managers in the IPH in collaboration with the Punjab Health Care Commission for the awareness regarding ‘essentials for patient safety.’ Dr Zarfishan Tahir said, the protection of patients' rights is the joint responsibility of health professionals and health managers. In addition to the faculty members of IPH, Punjab Healthcare Commission Director Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Sulehriya, Dr Imtiaz Ali, Dr Majid Latif and health managers of various government as well as private hospitals from across the province attended the ceremony.

Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Sulehriya highlighted the fundamentals of patient safety. He said that the PHC had introduced minimum service delivery standards(MSDS) to ensure quality treatment and diagnostic facilities in public and private hospitals, private clinics and laboratories of the province and to ensure their implementation in an effective and efficient manner. An integrated monitoring policy is being implemented which has helped to improve the quality of health delivery in the province and a grievance redress system has also been devised in this regard. In addition, guidance is provided to health professionals and hospitals’ administrative doctors. For their awareness, training workshops are also organised. Dr Mushtaq Ahmed said that the responsibility of PHC was to provide awareness and training to health professionals and health managers, but to provide quality treatment facilities to patients in hospitals is the responsibility of the doctors.

On this occasion, Dr Imtiaz Ali of PHC informed the participants of the workshop about access to treatment facilities, their assessment and regular patient care. Dr Imtiaz informed the participants about infection control in hospitals and necessary measures to make them infection-free.