ASSESSING STAFF REQUIREMENTS AND WORKLOAD PRESSURE AMONG DOCTORS WORKING IN OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF A PUBLIC SECTOR HOSPITAL IN PAKISTAN USING THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION’S WORKLOAD INDICATORS OF STAFFING NEEDS

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess the doctors’ requirement/workload pressure in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (DObGyn) of a public sector hospital for effective planning and management of human resources. METHODS: World Health Organization's Workload Indicators of Staffing Needs (WISN) tool was used in assessing the staffing requirements for doctors working in the DObGyn of a public sector hospital Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Information on working conditions and staffing was acquired by reviewing relevant documents and interviewing key informants. We obtained workload statistics from the hospital from January 1 to December 31, 2015. We assisted a senior technical expert working group in identifying workload components and activity standards, as well as validating both. RESULTS: The average working time needed by the doctors to perform ‘health service activities' was 1952 hours, for which 32 doctors are needed, while there are 36 doctors in the department. ‘Support activities’ accounted for about a fifth of the doctors' annual working hours (-category allowance standards=18.54%), for which 7 doctors were additionally needed. The ‘additional activities' required 3566 hours for which 2 additional doctors were needed. To perform all the three activities, there was a total need of 41 doctors. The workload pressure was also found to be high (WISN ratio: 0.87) on doctors. CONCLUSION: The health services, support and additional activities take up about significant part of the doctors’ time annually. This may require recruitment of a low-cost skill-mix of healthcare personnel to cope with the current workload and/or a health system thinking perspective to reduce the workload indirectly.