Towards healthier Punjab: Govt to involve NGOs, trusts to fix healthcare

Grant for aid policy for entities managing hospitals or health units will be drafted.

LAHORE: By drafting a grant for aid policy, the Punjab government hopes to engage trusts and nongovernment organisations to provide healthcare facilities, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to well-placed sources, the government wanted to utilise the health facilities of trusts and nonprofit organisations to provide medical facilities free of charge. Trust and NGOs managing hospitals or health care facilities, registered with the Punjab Health Care Commission and with a minimum capacity of 250 patients, would be declared eligible to apply for the grant after scrutiny. The initial draft said an approval committee would review the application.

Eligible entities would be selected through the Punjab Procurement Rules. The draft was prepared by a committee formed by the government under the supervision of Chairman P&D. According to the document of the policy, available with The Express Tribune, the objective of the policy was to improve the health and quality of life of people in the province. It stated the purpose was to adopt appropriate health technology and finance grant eligible entities (GEEs). They will also develop and improve synergies with competent and committed GEEs for effective partnering.

The policy underscores the problems faced by health sectors for Punjab. It envisaged the engagement of GEEs through grant-in-aid contracts by providing healthcare services and facilities in Punjab.

The policy suggests two categories; one to maintain existing healthcare and infrastructure and the second was to upgrade existing ones or establish new, specialised facilities.



Other than involving nonprofit organisation and trusts, the information secretary said the government also wanted to engage private hospitals in Punjab to provide free of charge healthcare facilities to the people.

He said public hospitals in Punjab were packed with patients that can be moved to select private entities. The secretary said the government has observed that a handful of leading private hospitals receive the maximum load of patients, whereas numbers were low at others.

He said such hospitals with low patient counts could, after proper scrutiny, be referred patients of government hospitals or be allowed to receive patients of public hospitals. He said that they could be paid per patient and the proposal was under the consideration of the government.

Punjab health secretary said that by bringing in the private sector, Punjab would reduce the load on public sector hospitals. He said believed a public-private partnership would improve the health service delivery system in the province.

Another official of the health department said the government, using its discretion, doled out grants to hospitals managed by trusts. He said that there was no established policy for the grant in aid. He added the policy would provide a legal mechanism to engage healthcare facilities under the control of trusts or NGOs.

To improve public healthcare facilities, the provincial government recently signed an agreement in March to transfer the management of the Kidney Hospital in Multan to Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital Trust, the name of which is being changed to the Pakistan Health Foundation. The government was also interested in handing blood transfusion centres, tehabilitation centers and district health quarters to the trust. It was further revealed that other health facilities could be given to nonprofit entities for better management and better output.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2017.