Healthcare reform: Shahbaz offers ‘blank cheque’ for efficient hospitals

Chief minister chairs meeting on health reforms roadmap

LAHORE: The government will provide everything required to improve the health sector, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Monday.

He was addressing a convention on health reforms roadmap.

“We will go to any length to provide whatever is needed to improve the system provided that patient care at hospital improves. I am ready to write a blank cheque if you come up with a mechanism to improve the [healthcare] system. I do not ask you to compete with the USA or the UK, but we should at least be able to provide a healthcare system comparable to Cuba,” the CM said.

The chief minister said that medical superintendents of all public sector hospitals should take steps to improve patient care.

He said that a centralised procurement system for purchasing medicines for public hospitals in the Punjab had proved a disaster. “When we asked district officers (DO) to sign contracts at local level for procuring medicines, not one of them did so. Resultantly, medicines had to be procured by ignoring the centralised policy. We could not penalise companies or ensure the quality that we wanted. These issues need to be resolved,” the CM said.

Shahbaz Sharif said that the Sheikhupura DCO and the health EDO had wasted a whole month in correspondence with each other before they were able to start the procurement process for medicines. “They could not finalise who will provide funds for the procurement. Had any of their own relatives been under treatment at public hospitals, they would not have delayed the procurement,” he said.



The CM said that an MS could improve a hospital if he wanted to. “During my visits to hospitals, I found out that air conditioners were functional at offices, but not in the wards. Why had we installed ACs in all the wards if they were not going to be used? Now when I visit hospitals, the administrations ensure that the ACs are turned on. But it should have been done earlier,” he said.

The CM said that hospitals had been provided IT systems to digitise their data. “However, only a few have done so. People will come out on the streets if hospitals do not start treating patients with care. The Health Department should focus on better patient care. And for that purpose, I am ready to go to any length,” he said.

The chief minister said that healthcare facilities in hospitals would be improved through the use of information technology. “An effective information technology management system is essential for healthcare system. Measure taken with the help of information technology in hospitals will yield positive results,” he said.

Adviser to CM on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, Parliamentary Secretary Khawaja Imran Nazir, PITB and Health Department officials attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2016.