Health reforms: ‘Facilities ill-equipped to overcome challenges’

Health insurance scheme pilot planned for Layyah, Rajanpur, Hafizabad, Chakwal

LAHORE:

Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Thursday the provision of specialists at district headquarters hospitals was imperative to revamp the health sector.

He was presiding over a conference on health reforms at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Iqbal stressed the need to introduce effective reward management to recruit and retain highly qualified doctors.

He said there was a pressing need to make district health authorities effective to improve service delivery.



The minister said it was necessary to formulate plans regularly to overcome the challenges confronting the sector. He said information technology could play a pivotal role in honing the administrative and managerial skills of health officials.

Iqbal said there was a pressing need to introduce an information management system for the sector and directed officials to formulate a plan to introduce a system to record births and demises at district headquarters hospital and enable staff to streamline operations with the exception of policy formation.

Iqbal said access to quality healthcare was an inalienable right. The minister said superior quality management was essential in this regard. He said attention should be focussed on prevention of diseases to improve district health indicators.

He said no country in the world had the resources to foot the bill of treating the maladies afflicting all of its citizens.

Iqbal said district headquarters hospitals ought to be decentralised and associated with teaching hospitals.

He said it was mandatory to revamp the sector on state-of-the-art lines as the old system of healthcare was ill-equipped to satisfy contemporary demands and overcome modern challenges. Iqbal said a strategy to implement the suggested reforms would be devised soon.

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique said a committee of experts had finalised a set of suggested reforms that would be presented to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif soon.

Health Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik said the government was on the verge of introducing the health insurance scheme.

He said five firms had been short-listed in this regard and preliminary work on the scheme had been completed. The health secretary said that a Rs4 billion-pilot project under the scheme was set to be introduced in the underdeveloped districts of Layyah, Rajanpur, Hafizabad and Chakwal.

Faisal Masood said quality nursing had a crucial role in improving service delivery. He said steps were being taken to educate and train nurses according to international standards.

Health Services Director-General Zahid Pervaiz was also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2014.