Prescribing Change: Unpacking Privatization's Impact on Government Teaching Hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Lack of financial support is one of the main causes of low-quality services in Government teaching hospitals of developing countries. Recent recommendations for privatization of government teaching hospitals were aimed at improving the services to that of private teaching hospitals. The strategy is expected to increase the efficiency & performance of government teaching hospitals and generate revenues for their continued improvements. The measuring dimensions of hospital performance not only predict the financial performance of a hospital, but also provide assessment on steps required for betterment of the Government teaching hospital. The non-financial performance of a hospital setting is based on non-financial variables such as Reliability, waiting time, sanitary facility, hygiene and information unique to particular treatment. Good human resource practices are one of the key components that may predict the monetary & non-monetary performances of a hospital. This study demonstrated these variables along with their dimensions across the whole public teaching hospitals settings in Lahore Punjab with a sample size of 300 respondents. Respondents were highly qualified Doctors, Nurses and administration staff of public teaching hospitals Lahore, Punjab. Smart PLS-4 was used as a statistical tool and ran reliability, mediation analysis and linear correlation for research findings. The results have been found significant that hospital performance can be increased through privatization. Although there are some limitations such as it was limited to public teaching hospitals only. Public DHQs (District Head-quarters), THQs (Tehsil Head-quarters) & RHC (Rural Health Centers) were not part of study. The opted variables to assess the hospital performance were not total markers, so for future research there is a path for researchers to opt the rest variables to explore the further significance.