Health Dept Forms Technical Working Group to Develop Neonatal Care SOPs
The Department of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education has approved the formation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) to review and develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for nursery and neonatology setups in all government teaching and tertiary care hospitals across Punjab.
According to the approval issued on Friday:
- Prof. Dr. Masood Sadiq will serve as convener.
- Prof. Khwaja Ahmed Irfan Waheed, Professor of Neonatology (Retd), Children’s Hospital Lahore, will be the co-convener.
- Other members include:
- Tahira Parveen, Director General Nursing
- Prof. Haroon Hamid, Principal Gujranwala Medical College
- Prof. Dr. Kashif Chishti, Executive Director Children’s Hospital Multan
- Prof. Mudassar Hussain, Professor of Pediatric Medicine at Khwaja Muhammad Safdar Medical College Sialkot
- Dr. Kaleem Akhtar Malhi, Neonatologist and General Secretary PPA (Punjab)
- Dr. Muhammad Anwar, Associate Professor Neonatology at Quaid-e-Azam Medical College Bahawalpur
- Dr. Mazhar Qadeer Khan, Biomedical Engineer at Children’s Hospital Lahore
- Irfan Haider, a representative of Emergency Services Department (Rescue 1122)
The TWG has been tasked with:
- Formulating clinical admission and discharge criteria.
- Establishing formal step-down and shared-care pathways.
- Providing guidance on infrastructure requirements for neonatal units.
- Drafting SOPs covering fire protection, emergency evacuation, firefighting, and electrical load management.
- Developing training modules for evacuation drills, neonatal care, and basic firefighting.
The group is directed to submit its recommendations to the competent authority within seven days.