KP govt constitutes BoG to streamline KPHCC’s affairs

PESHAWAR: Taking notice of the issues facing the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Commission (KPHCC), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has finally constituted a Board of Governors (BoG) to streamline its affairs.

“We have finalised members for the Board of Governors for KPHCC and it will be functional this week. We had to go through so many good CVs to choose the best available people for the commission,” Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra told The News.

He said that being aware of the importance of KPHCC they had planned to constitute its Board of Governor’s but the coronavirus pandemic struck and delayed the matter. “The pandemic delayed the formation of the board for KPHHC,” the minister remarked.

Taimur Jhagra said the government also constituted a board for the Health Foundation that would start working this week. He said the government had chosen the BoG members on merit, hoping they would utilise their energies and skills to make decisions on merit. The minister said the government had decided to fill the gap in other BoGs of certain Medical Teaching Institutions.

KPHCC was the flagship project of the previous PTI government in the health sector. The then coalition government had introduced reforms in the health sector and passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Commission Act 2015 (KPHCC) and Khyber Medical Teaching Institution Reforms Act 2015 (MTI).

The main purpose of PKHCC was to regulate public and private healthcare establishments in the province. The KPHCC is supposed to conduct training for the healthcare providers, ensure rights of patients, register healthcare establishments and clinics, inspect health facilities, issue accreditation and address complaints.

The incumbent PTI government had constituted the board last year for KPHCC that included some good and professional people. The then Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan soon developed differences with the board members allegedly over recruitment, prompting four of the board members to quit, including its chairman, Dr Mohammad Rahman.