PHC, armed forces agree to improve healthcare service

LAHORE: A joint consultative forum has been constituted by Armed Forces Medical Service and Punjab Healthcare Commission for capacity assessment, regular trainings, bilateral visits, mutual learning and knowledge sharing.

This is an eight-member forum comprising quality assurance experts with equal representation from both organisations, which have mutually agreed to nurture collaboration for improvement in quality of the healthcare service delivery. Chief Operating Officer (COO), PHC, Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan gave a presentation on the background, mandate, jurisdiction, regulatory functions, processes, and quality assurance activities of the commission here at CMH Lahore Medical College to participants of MSc Medical Administration Course. The batch of 40 officers was led by Commandant Armed Forces Post-Graduate Medical Institute (AFPGMI) Major General Ammar Raza.

Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan reiterated that the PHC was committed to working jointly with the armed forces for better patient care in their respective domains through improvement in the quality of healthcare services. He maintained that the PHC was committed to making available all its academic, intellectual and experiential resources to the armed forces in case any assistance was needed, and the commission would also like to adopt the monitoring and quality assurance framework, implemented at the armed forces health institutions, to incorporate it in the service delivery standards of the institutions falling under its purview. The COO proposed mutual learning, sharing of knowledge and experience in the fields of clinical governance, quality assurance, capacity assessment of the health managers and practitioners, bilateral visits of healthcare facilities to witness on-ground implementation of the initiatives, and capacity-building in the healthcare service delivery, including regular training sessions, training, research and development.

The COO pointed out the conspicuous absence of the national and international regulatory frameworks as nothing was structured for regulating the health service delivery prior to the inception of the commission, which was institutionalized to bring all the healthcare establishments under the ambit of law. “The Punjab was the first province to establish the PHC, while other provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Islamabad Capital Authority are in the process of replicating the Commission,” he added, while maintaining that the regulatory health service arrangement of the PHC was one in 29 countries of the world. He talked at length about the PHC’s initiatives in quality assurance, minimum service delivery standards (MSDS), licensing and accreditation, complaint management and anti-quackery. He mentioned that the PHC had registered and licensed more than 38,000 and 23,000 HCEs respectively besides carrying out inspections of about 9,300 establishments.