Health care system needed to improved at DHQ Hospitals level:Ahsan Iqbal

Lahore: Federal Minister for Planning & Development Ahsan Iqbal has said that specialist doctors of various diseases at District Headquarters hospitals is necessary for improvement of the healthcare system and instead of traditional pay scales, special pay packages will  have to be introduced for the recruitment of specialist doctors so that services of highly qualified and competent doctors could be acquired. He said that there is also need to make District Health Authorities functional for an efficient health care delivery system.

He was addressing Provincial Health Conference regarding progress and reformation of health sector arranged by provincial health department at the Chief Minister office today.

Advisor on Health Kh. Salman Rafiq, Secretary Health Jawad Rafiq Malik, Director General Health Dr. Zahid Pervaiz, Vice Chancellor King Edward Medical University, Vice Chancellor University Health Sciences, Principal of medical colleges. Elected representatives, Incharge Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit and experts in various sectors were present.

Ahsan Iqbal stressed the need for taking steps and making planning for meeting the modern demands and challenges leaving aside the traditional system. He said that use of information technology is vital for increasing professional and administrative abilities and capacity building of health managers. He said that there is a need of a strong health information management system and a system should be evolved for collecting data of births and deaths in hospitals and District Health Authorities should deal with the operational matters except policy making.

Ahsan Iqbal said that availability of best treatment facilities is the right of citizens and for this purpose quality management is essential. He said that maximum attention will have to be paid for prevention of diseases for improving district health indicators. He said that except prevention of diseases, even any developed country cannot bear expenses of all patients of the country. He stressed the need for decentralization of powers and linking District Headquarters Hospitals with teaching hospitals. Ahsan Iqbal said that we will have to set the system on modern lines as the old system cannot cope with new challenges.

Addressing the conference, Advisor Health Kh. Salman Rafiq said that the committees of experts have prepared recommendations for reforms in health sector which will be soon presented to Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif. He said that strategy for implementation on these reforms will soon be evolved. Secretary Health Jawad Rafiq Malik said that the government is introducing Health Insurance Scheme and its preliminary work has been completed and five insurance firms have been short listed. He told that as a pilot project this scheme is being started in the backward districts like Layyah, Rajanpur, Hafizabad and Chakwal, with a sum of four billion in the province. Addressing the conference Prof. Faisal Masood said that nurses are an important part of the Health Care Delivery System therefore, steps are needed for imparting education and training to nurses on modern lines so that nurses of international level could be produced.