World Bank mission briefed on PHC working

LAHORE: The World Bank mission has appreciated the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) for its achievements in regulating the healthcare service delivery and putting in place a system for assuring quality in the healthcare service delivery and parameters of patient safety.

During a meeting held here on Thursday, a visiting delegation of the World Bank discussed working of the PHC and various aspects of healthcare service delivery in the province with the PHC team led by Chief Operating Officer Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan. Directors Clinical Governance Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Salariya, Prof Riaz A Tasneem, Quality Assurance Dr Qamar Salman and others were present on the occasion. The WB delegation led by senior health specialist Dr Tayyeb Masud was comprised of senior operations officer Maria Gracheva, operations officer Lori Geurts and programme assistant Minh Thi Hoang Trinh.

Dr Tayyeb Masud while appreciating the PHC said during 2014-15 Review Mission, the PHC was the only organisation which had met the Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLI) resulting in the release of financial tranche to the provincial health department.

Earlier, Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan, while briefing about the PHC and mandate of its working, told the mission that the PHC had registered around 55,000 and licensed over 37,000 healthcare establishments (HCEs), besides preparing the minimum service delivery standards (MSDS) for all kinds of treatment facilities. “The commission has trained more than 23,000 health professionals of over 18,750HCEs to implement the standards,” he said, adding more than 17,000 inspections of the HCEs had been carried out as well. About the anti-quackery efforts of the PHC, he said the commission had sealed over 18,300 businesses of quacks in a continued robust campaign. He also briefed the mission about the complaints directorate.

He said PHC had been internationally recognised by various organisations for its good work. “The PHC processes and its data had been validated through the third party performance evaluation conducted by the United States’ John Snow, Inc,” he said, adding the PHC model had been replicated in other provinces as well.