Effective steps should be taken to check the incidents of violence at the public sector hospitals at district and tehsil headquarters’ level in Punjab. A directive to this effect was issued by primary and secondary healthcare department Secretary Ali Jan Khan at the monthly meeting of medical superintendents (MSs) of the DHQ and THQ hospitals at an Egerton Road hotel here on Sunday. Secretary Primary & Secondary Health Ali Jan Khan, Special Secretary Dr. Faisal Zahoor, Additional Secretary Admin Dr. Farooq Manzoor, Provincial Director Mother & Child Health Program Dr. Mukhtiar Hussain Syed, Dr. Akhtar Rasheed Malik, Directors of different health programs, members of Project Management Unit, IT experts and the medical superintendents attended the meeting.
Presiding over the meeting, primary and secondary healthcare minister Khwaja Imran Nazir appreciated the performance of medical superintendents and the allied staff for making the plan “successful”. He claimed that for the first time, high quality medicines had been made available at the public sector hospitals in Punjab. Outsourcing of the non-clinical facilities had resulted in a lot of improvement in the system of hospitals, he added. The meeting also reviewed performance of the hospitals and steps taken to control hepatitis, tuberculosis and dengue at the grassroots level. Implementation of Minimum Service Delivery Standards (MSDS), provision of medicines, cleanliness and hygiene conditions, infection control, attendance of the staff and disciplinary matters were also reviewed. Secretary Health Ali Jan Khan said that the first phase, revamp of 25 DHQ and 15 THQ hospitals had been completed, he said, adding that matters relating to improvement in infrastructure, capacity building and training of the staff and expansion of medical facilities would be covered in the second phase of the plan.
Secretary Health directed the medical superintendents that disciplinary steps should be taken for the purpose while focus should be on counseling of attendants of the patients, said the secretary while adding that work had been started on the second phase of the plan to revamp these hospitals.