PHC, Armed Forces to join hands for healthcare

The Armed Forces Medical Services and Punjab Healthcare Commission will cooperate and collaborate in certain areas for improving healthcare service delivery in their respective spheres.

This was decided at the first meeting of a high-level joint consultative forum, which was held at the Commission’s office, according to a press release issued here on Thursday.

The forum comprised Brig Shazia Sarwar Ali, Brig Hamid Jamal Siddiqui and Lt-Col Malik Muhammad Ilyas from the AFMS, while the PHC members were Director Clinical Governance and Organisational Standards Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Salariya, Director Licensing and Accreditation Dr Muhammad Anwar Janjua, Additional Director (Complaints) Brig (retd) Dr Shahid Mahmood, Additional Director (Inspections) Lt-Col (retd) Dr Muhammad Saleem Khokhar and Additional Director (Quality Assurance) Dr Qamar Salman. Earlier, the members met PHC Chief Operating Officer Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan.

Both sides agreed to share standards and experiences in clinical governance, development of the MSDS for the primary healthcare establishments of the Army, bilateral visits of healthcare facilities and centres of excellence to witness the on-ground implementation of the quality assurance regimes, training of health managers and practitioners, collaboration in research, sharing of data, holding of interactive workshops, and regular orientation sessions for training courses of the AFPGMI.

The incorporation of the quality assurance framework of the centres of excellene of the Armed Forces Medical Servicee in the PHC accreditation standards was also proposed.