PHC body to finalise grading of hospitals

Service delivery standards deem patient safety as top priority

LAHORE:

A six-member committee comprising senior health professionals from both public and private sector has been constituted to finalise the framework for the grading of the licensed hospitals of the Punjab Healthcare Commission within a month.

This was decided during a meeting chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of the PHC, Dr. Muhammad Saqib Aziz.

The meeting was held in the provincial capital under the auspices of the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) on Friday.

Among the members of the committee, Dr Omar Aziz Rana, Dr Sabir Malik and Dr Haroon Latif are from the private sector while the Vice Chancellor of the University of Child Health Sciences, Professor Massaud Sadiq, an Assistant Professor at the Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Dr. Shahid Latif, and the Principal of the Allama Iqbal Medical College, Professor Nadeem Hafeez Butt, are from the public sector.

The PHC CEO, in his opening remarks, said that the minimum service delivery standards (MSDS) required all kinds of healthcare establishments to ensure patient safety and make necessary arrangements for the provision of quality care in accordance with the scope of services of the respective hospitals.

The DCG of the PHC highlighted the salient features of the grading framework of the hospitals, saying that all the hospitals would be zoned -– red, orange, yellow and green -– based on their MSDS Compliance Score.

He said that all the licensed HCEs within the green zone would be graded.

Heads of medical teaching institutions and other leading health professionals also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2023.