K-P to collect data on private health facilities

HCC chief assures security for officials involved in survey

PESHAWAR: In what is another first, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government is vying to become the first administration in the country to collect data about private health facilities operating across the province.

Authorities claim that this will be the first time that a database on private health facilities would be created apart from regulating services and penalising those involved in malpractices.

The data is expected to be collected by officials of the Health Care Commission (HCC) with assistance from government officials already deputed at the grassroots level and members of the expanded programme on immunisation.



Called a ‘mapping exercise’ by officials, they said that the objective of the survey was to identify private healthcare establishments working across the province, specifically those operating in remote areas.

Once complete, the government would be able to identify the total number of health care clinics, laboratories, hospitals in the province and categorise them.

Officials involved in the programme said that the data would help the government formulate future health policies in the province. Moreover, a proposed registration and licencing regime would help maintain minimum delivery standards of training, implementation and regulation.

Apart from surveying facilities, the government plans to include health staffers such as lady health workers who would be provided survey forms to identify health facilities, clinics, and laboratories.

HCC Chief Executive Officer Dr Aazar Sardar said that the most important objective of the exercise was to identify quackeries or fake health care centres in the province. He conceded that the process was fraught with risks, but assured that official conducting the survey would be provided with due security.



“You are not supposed to investigate but only note down private facilities within your respective jurisdiction and the rest is our job,” Sardar said during a meeting held in the Peshawar.

He said that previously this part of the health sector was ignored and it allowed space for people to play with the lives of innocent patients. He reiterated that the rules clearly mention that no one can run health facilities without obtaining a licence.

Sardar added that the HCC had already conducted a performance audit of government-run health facilities in the province and the report had been sent to the chief minister. “Now, we are going to collect data on private health facilities, register them or punish those involved in illegal businesses,” the HCC chief executive said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2017.