WHO, PHC join hands for patient safety

LAHORE: The World Health Organisation will join hands with the Punjab Healthcare Commission in implementing the latter’s minimum service delivering standards (MSDS) aimed at ensuring patient safety and improving quality of the healthcare service delivery.

It was decided at a meeting held here Wednesday, where the visiting WHO delegation was given a detailed briefing about the MSDS and their implementation in all kinds of the healthcare establishments (HCEs) across the province. The PHC team comprised of Director Licencing and Accreditation Dr Muhammad Anwar Janjua, Director Complaints Prof Riaz A Tasneem, Additional Directors (Clinical Governance) Dr Majid Latif and Quality Assurance Dr Qamar Salman and others. The nine-member WHO delegation included Dr Mathew Nielson, Dr Donna Forsyth, Dr Zulfiqar Khan, Dr Zakiuddin Ahmed, Dr Samia Al-Barwani and Dr Bassem Zayed.

Both institutions also agreed to work jointly for improving other areas of the health sector as well. The WHO delegation was briefed about the regulatory framework of the PHC being implemented, mandate of its working, and its successes in this regard. The delegation was told that the PHC had registered around 57,000 and licenced over 41,000 private and public sector HCEs, where the MSDS were being implemented; hence encompassing issues related to the patient safety and improved healthcare service delivery. About the anti-quackery efforts of the PHC, the delegation was informed that the Commission had sealed over 21,000 businesses of quacks in a continued campaign to eliminate the menace. They were also briefed about the working of the Complaint Directorate of the PHC.