Public hospitals should start charging fee: PIMS chief

Senate panel on health seeks proposal for new fee structure

As a measure to generate revenue for the public sector hospitals, a top official of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has called for charging fees from the people who can afford.

“Charging fee from affluent people will help improve services for underprivileged segments of the society,” Pims Executive Director (ED) Dr Ansar Maqsood said.

He was briefing the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services Regulation and Coordination meeting chaired by Senator Khushbakht Shujat.

The health facility could generate heavy revenue if it started receiving charges from the affluent patients, he said.

The committee chairperson Senator Khushbakht Shujat directed the official to develop and submit a plan for implementation of the suggestion.

Dr Maqsood citing the reason behind the proposal said they wanted to make Pims self-sufficient so that poor patients could get high quality health care for free.

Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination in its meeting was given a briefing on the work, functions, and performance of National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, budget allocation of the institute, funding from national and international donors, income generated ad total expenditure under different heads.

The meeting was held under the chair of Senator Khushbakht Shujaat at the Parliament House on Thursday and was attended among others by senators Dr Mehr Taj Roughani, Dr Ghous Bakhsh Niazi, Dr Sikander Mandhro, Sana Jamali, Liaquat Tarakai, National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Secretary, and heads of NIH and Pims.

NIH performance

While briefing the committee, NIH Executive Director Dr Amir Ikram said that two public health laboratories had been established in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan respectively, adding the process of establishing labs in Punjab, Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) has also begun.

He apprised the committee members that they had paid off Rs100 million and informed that NIH was now ISO certified institution.

He said that in 2018-19 the institution received Rs527.240 million grant in aid from government and for 2019-20 the allocation was Rs535.759 million.

The institute was working on proposing three different pieces of legislation to make the health sector better and has rejuvenated the working of the institute in last couple of years. From international agreements to generating vaccines ingenuously, NIH was working on becoming internationally compatible organisation.

Dengue prevention

Further, the Health Secretary Allah Baksh told the members that the anti-dengue drive would be launched across the country by February 2020.

Commenting on benefits of sending officials abroad on different training programs, he said that the trained officials, after returning to the country, educate other officials in the departments.

The secretary informed that around 70 per cent diseases humans suffered were caught from animals and added that there was a demand for 0.8 million vials of anti-rabies vaccines.

The committee took strong exception to sale of medicines without prescriptions. Senator Roughani said that contrary to Pakistan, it was impossible to purchase antibiotic medicines abroad without a doctor’s prescription.

The chairman of the committee expressed dismay that people could open and run drug stores without a licence and painkillers could be purchased easily even from a grocery store.

The Committee also discussed high charges of private hospitals and laboratories and pathetic condition of public hospitals raised by Senator Javed Abbasi.

It was told that learning from the experience of Punjab, the federal government is working to develop minimum service standards and categorisation as well which will be mandatory to follow by hospitals and laboratories.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2019.