Human resource: Management of five public hospitals to be outsourced by October

Health secretary says the move will improve service delivery

LAHORE: The provincial government has decided to outsource by October the management of five government hospitals in Faisalabad, Lodhran, Khanewal, Pakpattan and Chakwal.

“In order to improve healthcare service delivery, the department has decided to hand over the management of select public hospitals to private entities,” Primary and Secondary Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan told The Express Tribune. He said outsourcing of the management of Indus Hospital on Bedian Road in Lahore had resulted in improved service.

The secretary said the hospitals would remain government entities. “The Health Department will (continue to) appoint doctors and paramedical staff. It will also be responsible for providing free medicines,” Khan said.

“The new management will only oversee administrative issues such as enforcement of biometric attendance, security and inventory management of medicines. They will ensure smooth functioning and maintenance of machines,” he said.

He said mismanagement complaints about DHQ and THQ hospitals had necessitated outsourcing of the management. “This will help the department get rid of corrupt officials,” the secretary said.

Khan denied this was a step towards privatisation of government hospitals. “The hospitals, doctors and equipment will remain government’s assets,” he said.

Young Doctors’ Association-Punjab former president Hamid Butt said public hospital management must not be privatised. He said doctors would resort to a province-wide protest movement to resist the move, if necessary. “They had earlier introduced the central induction policy to break our strength. Now they are trying to privatise the healthcare system,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Health Department said the department would not change its policies on account of such pressure. He said some corrupt elements had been creating hurdles to the improvement of healthcare system.

That was why, he said, the department had decided to outsource their administration. “We must overcome interference in the affairs of public hospitals,” he said.

The spokesperson said some people were creating problems at hospitals with regard to the enforcement of biometric attendance system. “Earlier, they were trying to create hurdles in the implementation of central induction policy… they must understand that they are not above the law."
The Finance minster, in her budget speech in 2015, had said that the provincial government would outsource the management of district hospitals in 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2016.