Minister angry at hospital lethargy

LAHORE

Punjab Minister for Labour and Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has expressed indignation over the lethargic attitude of IT Department and administration of Nawaz Sharif Security Hospital (NSSH) Multan Road for not making functional its “Health Management Information System” after delay of five years. 

He has given a deadline to Medical Superintendent and Director IT of the Hospital to complete the task of data computerisation of all the secured industrial workers and their family members till February 15 issuing them digitalised Health Cards as well encouraging paper free health services to labour community.

He issued these directions on Monday during a briefing in this regard at the NSSSH Multan Road Lahore. Vice-Commissioner Punjab Employees Social Security Institute (PESSI) Khalid Salim, DG PESSI Rana Muhammad Hanif, Director Medical Nasir Jamal Pasha, MS Prof. Dr. Ashraf Nizami and heads of different departments were also present. Director IT Salim Zubair, briefing the minister, said HMIS deployment was started after the inauguration of the data centre in 2013 with the timeline of two years as per agreement between the Shaukat Khanum Memorial and PESSI. 

He informed the media that a system has been integrated with the main PESSI website, PACS Server has been installed and interfacing of CT Scan machines and pathology machines have been completed, Counter  Consultancy Order is running, outdoor patients setup has been configured and functional and laboratory information system has been installed. Director IT further said workers' registration, bio-metric attendance, pay role management and IP based CCTV surveillance have been set functional at NSSSH along with the establishment of the PESSI data centre. He apprised that workers' registration portal has been deployed and functional all over the PESSI Directorates, 59,975 registered units have been entered, 291,279 workers have been  registered in computerised data based along with their 465,700 dependents, 190 computers deployed in different wards and departments of the hospital. 

Minister Labour Raja Ashfaq Sarwar expressed his displeasure over the slow pace of work in HMIS as computerised registration of more than eight lakh secured workers along with their 50 to 55 lakh dependents was still pending with the IT department. The facility of the HMIS was only functional at the E&T, Orthopedic, Pathology and TB departments. The minister directed the MS and Director IT to improve mutual coordination and accelerate the pace of work as a team to complete the task in given timeline. After the completion of the HMIS of the hospital, not only time will be saved from long documentation process, but transparency, good governance and delivery of best possible health facilities to this deprived section of the society would become possible, he concluded.