The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) held a seminar at Jinnah Sindh Medical University, which emphasized the problem of violence against health workers. The APPNA Institute of Public Health (AIPH) at JSMU is a proud partner of the Health Care in Danger (HCiD) Initiative of the ICRC. The initiative aims to conscientiously support health systems in preventing and controlling violence against health care workers by making health care settings safe and empowering health care providers to manage violence at their workplace. The initiative has developed and implemented different interventions including training for health care providers on de-escalation of violence in health care settings, training for ambulance workers on field safety and security, testing contextualized international tools to assess security in hospitals and formation of security frameworks, and mass media awareness campaigns on giving way to ambulances and respecting health care providers.
The seminar was attended by Secretary Health Dr. Usman Chachar, Vice Chancellor Jinnah Sindh Medical University Dr. SM Tariq Rafi, Dean Medical Education CPSP Dr. Syeda Kausar, Mr. Giovanni Trambaiolo Head of ICRC Sub-Delegation, Dr. Mirwais Khan Head of Project Health Care in Danger ICRC, AIG Dr. Waliullah Khan, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Ali Shalwani, Professor Lubna Baig Dean and Pro VC Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Dr. Shiraz Shaikh Co-Principle Investigator of HCiD, Dr. Syed Muhammad Ibrahim Hashmi Project Manager HCiD, Dr. Naseem from Institute of Public Health and Social Sciences Khyber Medical University, CEO Sindh Healthcare Commission Dr. Minhaj Kidwai and Zarrar Khurro Media Panelist who shared significant achievements of the initiative with health care professionals in attendance. The seminar’s goal was to develop policy guidelines for protecting care workers along with concerned stake holders including health policy makers, media personnel, members of medical fraternity and law enforcement agencies in protecting health care.
Dr. Mirwais Khan from the ICRC stated that: “Adopting new policies and standards will ensure all hospitals, no matter how big or small, can prevent violence and keep their staff and patients safe. Healthcare workers care for us at our most vulnerable. They deserve to feel and be safe at work. We are sending a strong message that violence against healthcare workers can never condoned.”
Professor Lubna Baig, Dean APPNA Institute of Public Health stated that: “HCID Project team at APPNA Institute of Public Health feels strongly about violence against healthcare that negatively effects the performance of Healthcare providers which ultimately leads to poor quality of care and adverse health outcomes. In the past four years, the team has passionately done great amount of research on this subject and also come up with practical solutions to minimize violence against healthcare. The presence of all relevant stakeholders in this seminar will help us in together chalking out a strategy to implement the solutions that have been developed after hard work of the core team of the project.”