Operation services of 52 theatres suspended

LAHORE: The Punjab Healthcare Commission has suspended operation services of 52 theatres of 10 hospitals, and issued notices to 28 healthcare establishments for not implementing the Minimum Service Delivery Standards, and violating the provisions of the PHC Act 2010.

According to a press release issued Thursday, out of the sealed operation theatres, 17 were of the Mayo Hospital, 11 of the Shalimar Hospital, and five of the Kishwar Fazal Teaching Hospital, Faizpur Interchange. The rest included four each of the Data Darbar Waqf and Government Mian Mir, three each of the Lady Aitchison and Red Crescent and two each of the THQ Raiwind and Sarwat Anwar Hospital Garden Town. These have been directed not to perform any kind of surgical procedures at these theatres until the respective administrations submit laboratory reports to the Commission that standardised measures have been implemented in the theatres. All of these healthcare establishments have also been served notices.

The PHC teams inspected 33 hospitals in the last three days, and 28 of these were served notices due to their failure to implement the MSDS. Seven public sector hospitals were Sir Ganga Ram, Kot Khawaja Saeed, Punjab Institute of Mental Health, Infectious Diseases (Bilal Ganj), Nawaz Sharif Social Security, Punjab Social Security Management Company (Manga Mandi) and Mian Munshi. On the other hand, the private hospitals were Sughra Shafi Teaching Hospital Narowal, Surgimed, Suriya Azeem Waqf, Mumtaz Bakhtwar (Rainwind and Wahdat Road), United Christian, Rehmat Ali Memorial Trust (Township), Rasheed Hospital DHA, Pakistan Society of Rehabilitation, Central Park Teaching Hospital, Mufaza-tul Hayat Hospital (Ferozpur Road) and AR Hospital (Rehman Gardens).

The spokesperson for the Commission has said all these healthcare establishments have been directed to implement the MSDS, and appear before the PHC hearing committee to submit a written reply outlining the reasons for not implementing the standards. “In case, they fail to submit a satisfactory reply, fine can be imposed on them,” he added.

technical education: Provincial Minister for Industry and Trade Sheikh Alla-ud-Din Thursday said there was a need to improve the quality of technical education centres across the province and Industries Department has to play role in this regard. He said the Punjab government was paying attention to technical education.

According to a handout, the minister said this while meeting with Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE) Chairperson Yasmin Mehar-ul-Nisa. She told to the minister that the examination of PBTE had ended but some irregularities were reported in it. She said various technical centres across the province were inspected before exams and notices were issued to the unsatisfying centres. All the technical institutions were registered with TEVTA and staff of Schools Education Department performed duties in current examinations.

The minister directed the chairperson to maintain transparent arrangements for re-checking of the papers and to take strict action against the institutions where irregularities were found.