22 August 2017 – The WHO country office in Pakistan with support provided by the WHO Regional Ofice and in collaboration with the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination is convening a hospital management training course from 21 to 26 August, 2017 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The participants are hospital mangers from 15 hospitals from all provinces in Pakistan in addition to Azad Jammu Kashmir and Islamabad. 

The training aims to build capacity of hospital managers in Pakistan to ensure improved management of hospital service delivery addressing the major local health problems based on community needs and existing infrastructure. In addition, the hospital managers in such situation like Pakistan must be able to manage effectively when resources are scarce and able to manage different ongoing emergencies and major disaster situations. The objective of this workshop is to strengthen the knowledge and skills of hospital managers on different components of hospital care and management.  

The Director-General Dr Assad Hafeez, Federal Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination highlighted the important role of hospitals within the health system and the importance of hospitals being managed effectively and efficiently. He said that training for hospital managers should be rolled out over the country for 1000 hospital mangers to develop capacities. He also expressed appreciation of WHO in providing support to build capacity in Pakistan. 

The training has been designed following a training needs assessment of hospital managers in Pakistan which enabled organizers to design the course on the basis of managers’ needs. The taining will cover all important components of hospital care and management, including: hospital leadership governance; strategic planning/information management; quality and safety of hospital care; human resources management; financial management and disaster management. The training is being facilitated by WHO experts and will target a total of 51 participants from the different provinces of Pakistan composed of hospital managers/directors, medical superintendents, nursing managers or influential members of academia who can act as trainers with sufficient experience in hospital management.

During the inauguration of the workshop, WHO Representative Dr Mohammad Assai Ardakani explained that WHO was now focusing on the role of hospitals within integrated people centred health services and also emphasized that it was crucial that hospital managers in Pakistan become well trained in hospital management and bring change to their respective hospitals. He proposed that a training of trainers approach be adopted for the rolling out of the hospital manager training programme throughout Pakistan. He emphasized that the participants of this training from different provinces form a core team of master trainers and plan to replicate similar training in their province and that WHO would provide the necessary technical support to them. He also said that WHO was helping the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordinationto sensitize some universities to start a diploma programme in hospital management as a long-term measure.