LAHORE: The Board of the Commissioners of the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) on Saturday unanimously elected Justice (r) Aamer Raza Khan as the BoC chairperson for the next three years. This was decided at the 36th BoC meeting held at the PHC office, which was attended by Commissioners Dr Muhammad Ajmad Saquib, Dr Zafar Iqbal, Ms Clara Pasha, Bushra Ijaz, Dr Naeemud Din Mian, Prof Rakhshanda Rehman and Arif Saeed. The chairperson thanked the commissioners for reposing confidence in him for the third stint. The meeting reiterated that the Punjab Healthcare Commission was an independent and autonomous body, which was working as per the decisions of its BoC, and regulated public and private healthcare establishments. The board gave approval for granting regular licenses to 472 healthcare establishments (HCEs) for showing good results in implementing the Minimum Service Delivery Standards (MSDS). The board also directed that performance audit be conducted of all the HCEs which had been issued regular licenses. While expressing satisfaction and appreciation at the PHC performance, the board directed that the regional offices should be established and new appointments be made in 18 districts by the end of the next fiscal year. The board also instructed that campaign against quacks should be expedited more. The board also analysed the third party evaluation report of the Punjab Healthcare Commission, and expressed its satisfaction. On this occasion, PHC Chief Operating Officer Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan presented performance report of the commission. He said that 376 training sessions were held for 11,567 HCEs, which included 2,835 public and 8,732 were private. “In these trainings, 15,589 medical professionals participated, which comprised 5,790 and 9,799 from the public and private sectors respectively,” he added. About performance regarding complaints, Dr Ajmal told the meeting that 1,247 complaints were registered, and the board gave decisions on 283, while decisions on 670 complaints were disposed of as well. In its Saturday’s meeting, the BoC decided 21 cases. Dr Ajmal told the meeting that the PHC had registered 39,682 HCEs, which included 4,615 public and 35,067 private. “The PHC has licensed 25,899 HCEs, which comprise 2,600 public sector, and 23,299 from the private sector,” he said, while adding that the PHC had inspected 9,867 HCEs, which included 1,454 and 8,413 public and private HCEs respectively. “During its recent campaign, the Punjab Healthcare Commission teams inspected seven areas, that is, hospital infection control, operation theatre surveillance, hospital waste management arrangements, emergency services, fire and non-fire emergencies, safe blood transfusion and complaint management system, for the MSDS implementation,” he said. “As a result of inspections of the operation theatres, surgeries were suspended in 278 OTs since these did not meet the standardized measures of infection control and other requisites,” he said. Dr Ajmal also mentioned that the PHC had sealed 7,447 fake treatment centers of quacks, and imposed a fine of more than Rs56 million on them. Published in Daily Times, February 18th 2018.