Delhi Cabinet gives nod to introduce hospital managers

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Cabinet on Monday approved the creation of posts of hospital managers in Delhi government hospitals, to allow doctors to concentrate more on clinical services.

The government will create 92 posts of hospital managers on fixed consolidated remuneration, initially for a one year period on a contract basis.

"Currently, 24 government hospitals (excluding autonomous institutions) are providing secondary, tertiary and specialist healthcare, ranging from preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative services including teaching, training and research facilities," said a senior government official.

He added that these health facilities need to be run efficiently to cater to the clinical service delivery, as well ancillary operations of hospital management for providing quality health care services to the citizens of Delhi.

"Presently, medical directors, medical superintendents, doctors, nurses, paramedics and pharmacists are engaged in the overall management of both these services. Multifarious services ranging from housekeeping, sanitation, kitchen services to specialised medical requirements and equipment handling etc, are required to be efficiently managed in hospitals," said the official.

He also said that involvement of doctors in administrative work not only leads to the reduction in their clinical output, but also puts an additional load of hospital management on them.

In many states, governments of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have envisioned the requirement of professional manpower with managerial competence to work as hospital managers and have created these posts under the National Health Mission.

Management in hospitals is vertically divided into two areas.

The first is the management of clinical services, which is done through medical directors or medical superintendents.

The second is the operation and management of hospital services: these very wide and multifarious services have been looked after by doctors and technical or paramedical staff so far.

Since the need was felt for specialised manpower, a four-member committee of senior doctors was formed to study the issues and assess the specialised manpower requirement.