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Thursday March 28, 2024

Sindh Health Care Commission to be closed if funds not released soon, warns chief

By M. Waqar Bhatti
April 17, 2019

Chairman Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC) Prof Dr Tipu Sultan said Tuesday that the provincial government had not the released commission’s budget for the year 2018-19 and if they were not provided funds shortly, they would be forced to close down the commission.

“At the start of the commission, the staff and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the commission worked without any pay for six months and now we are also under tremendous financial pressure. The provincial government has not released our budget, which is Rs365 million, proposed by the commission. If funds are not provided to us shortly, we would be compelled to halt the activities of the SHCC,” he said while addressing a news conference at the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) House.

Accompanied by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Minhaj Qidwai, Dr Sultan presented a performance report of the commission, saying they had some achievements on their credit, but they had to go a long way to improve the healthcare system in the province.

“The Sindh Healthcare Commission (SHCC) has completed its first milestone year of operations and achieved specific goals set by the management. The SHCC so far has successfully worked on the process of registration and licensing and 4,238 registration certificates were given to healthcare establishments (HCEs) while the process for the issuance of provisional licences has also been initiated.”

Dr Sultan deplored that despite all-out efforts, many major, tertiary-care hospitals in the public sector were not ready to get themselves registered with the SHCC.

He said the healthcare commission had only two mandates – ensuring quality healthcare and taking action against quackery. He added that during a drive against quackery, they had sealed around 193 healthcare establishments while warnings had been issued to 500 others.

Similarly, training to 200 healthcare establishments had been imparted for service delivery standards, he said, adding that the directorate of complaints was also fully functional and around 27 complaints had been resolved out of the 40 received by the commission.

“For ensuring quality, service delivery standards have been developed by the commission and trainings have been imparted to two members from each registered hospital to prepare for training and inspection,” he added.

He maintained that standards for primary-care clinics, homeopathy and Tibb had also been developed while initiatives had been taken on bringing the stakeholders together for hospital waste management.

The task force for anti-quackery had been notified and training material was being developed for doctors and lady health workers for infection control, he said, adding that a census for geo-mapping of public and private HCEs had been undertaken for the first time in Sindh, and this would help in providing the data on the HCEs and eradicating quacks.

SHCC Chief Executive Officer Dr Minhaj Qidwai stated that the commission lacked suo moto powers like apex courts, but as soon as a complainant approached the commission, it started its investigation and had so far disposed of 27 complaints to the satisfaction of the complainants as per rules and regulations.

To a query, he said that in case of any grievances against a healthcare establishment, the aggrieved person should approach the healthcare establishment and also lodge a complaint with the commission.

“We have the authority to seal a hospital if it is proved that the hospital administration has committed a grave mistake and endangered human lives. If a healthcare establishment is found guilty of negligence, it can be fined of Rs500,000 while a complaint can be lodged against any doctor with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) if he or she is found of committing criminal negligence,” he added.