Punjab finalises law to restructure specialised medical institutions

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LAHORE: In a historic move towards the care of the province’s health care and medical education system, the government of Punjab has finalized the draft of the Punjab Specialized Medical Institution Act 2025, which is a historic legislation, which will be expected in the Provincial Assembly soon.

In the proposed Punjab Specialized Medical Institution Act, 2025, a legal framework has been set up to govern all the public sector special medical and dental colleges and their affiliated teaching hospitals through independent boards of governors.

For the first time in the history of the province, the Public Sector Healthcare Institutions, which offers special services, will be consistently working as corporate organizations, who adopt their financial, administrative, educational, educational and operational issues. The purpose of this clean reform is to increase the quality of care for patients, smooth the supply of services, enhance the standards of medical education and research, and to establish accountability and performance monitoring procedures throughout the sector.

The Act is applied to all special medical institutions informed by the government and describes them as publicly funded as medical or dental colleges, teaching hospitals or other health educational institutions.

Now they will work as self -governance organizations through their own governors’ boards, including senior government officials and prominent members of the private sector, including healthcare professionals, financial experts, civil society representatives and experts.

Each board will be headed by a designated private member of the government and will gain comprehensive authority over institutional policies, human resources decisions, financial management, infrastructure development and educational surveillance.

According to the draft, each organization will be headed by a dean, who will serve as chief executive officer and principal accounting officer, which will ensure the alignment of institutional operations with acts, rules and regulations. The Dean will be appointed by the board for a four -year period, which is subject to performance -based renewal, and will oversee all faculty, academic councils and executive management committees. Supporting Dean will be the key director: hospital director, who will manage all non -clinical issues, including HR, shopping, engineering, pharmacy, and administration. The Medical Director, who will monitor all clinical functions, will ensure compliance with health care standards, and manage the development of the clinical audit and program. Nursing director, who will monitor nursing services, training, audit and staff. And the finance director, who will ensure budget discipline, pre -processed processes and financial ownership according to institutional rules.

Each hospital within the organization will be managed by the Hospital Management Committee, which will include the Dan, and the above mentioned directors as well as two board designated experts.

The committee will be responsible for the preparation of the budget, reviewing operations and ensuring quality quality. In addition, the organization will maintain an educational council chaired by Dean to advance education standards, curriculum, research, students’ admission and moral practices. Based on Dean’s recommendations, clinical departments will be led by the Chairperson appointed by the Board.

To ensure the merit -based selection of the board members, a high -powered search and nomination committee will be set up, which will be chaired by the Minister for Special Health Care and Medical Education and includes the Advertising Chief Secretary, the relevant department secretary, a retired senior medical professional, a senior medical professional. The committee will recommend integrity and professional discrimination to include on the board. Members can be appointed for a three -year period, with a possibility of renewal, while the government maintains the authority to note any member or dissolve the board in extraordinary cases.

The Act also outlines the standard of strict competence and incompetence for the members of the board, which left people suffering from insurance, criminal punishment, or interests. Board meetings must have at least six times per financial year, including decisions with simple majority and quorum requirements, including representation of government officials and private members.

The important thing is that legislative agencies give the authority to maintain and use income from fees, services and other sources without a government grant deduction. A dedicated institution will be set up with government grants, fees receipts, donations, consumer compensation, and investment income to finance operations, development, and research. The board has been given the option of approval for investment for additional funds, though such funds cannot be placed in securities or derivatives to avoid financial risks.

Under this Act, human resource management will be ruled by a special selection board set up by the government on the recommendation of the board, which will handle appointments, determine the terms of the service and take disciplinary action. The employees appointed under this Act will not be considered government employees, though existing government employees can be deployed with prior approval for these institutions. Institutional private practice will be restricted to advisers and heads of clinical articles, and it will be ruled by policy guidelines.

The Act implemented the same standards of healthcare in all the categories of patients, namely public or private, and medical record capping and transparency in the service supply are properly ordered. It also emphasizes regular compliance, moral action, and the elimination of discrimination. In addition, the institutions will be subject to both internal audit and special third party audit, which has been ordered by the Chief Minister, which will promote financial integrity and institutional accountability.

Finally, this Act provides the government for removing administrative barriers and solving operational challenges, which gives the IT the option to issue additional instructions or temporarily assign additional options to the chairperson when necessary. It also gives both the government and the board the authority to formulate the rules and regulations for the implementation of the provisions of the Act.

The Punjab Specialized Medical Institution Act 2025 is aimed at transferring the decision -making authority to professional -driven boards, creating a sustainable, merit -based and performance environmental system in the health care sector of Punjab. It converts archetypes, responsible for central models, with local governance, which increases the capacity of institutions to provide quality health care and education according to international standards. Since implementation is approaching, it is expected that the Act will work as a change template not only in Punjab but also in Pakistan for the rule of the health sector.