National Consultant for developing the Public Health Service Standard for Public Health Facilities in Bangladesh

Contract

This is a No grade contract. More about No grade contracts.

1. Purpose of consultancy:

Consultant for developing the National Public Health Service Standard for Public Health Facilities in Bangladesh.

The object of the consultancy is to provide technical assistance to Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) to develop comprehensive national public health service standard in line with Essential Service Package (ESP) incorporating all supply side components with standardization of human resources, medicines, infrastructure, diagnostics, guidelines/standards and facilities available at the health facilities by different level of care.

A comprehensive national public health service standard is required for improving efficiency at public health facilities. It will help DGHS to efficiently allocate resources and monitor performance of health facilities vis-à-vis national standards.

These activities will be carried out with the support of short-term national consultant, experienced in the national health service delivery reforms/health policy and planning, designing health service standards/guidelines and hospital administration. The national consultant will conduct the desk review of various policy documents and prepare the report and conduct facility survey, stakeholder consultation, preparation of draft document and dissemination of final draft.

2. Background:

Health care is backbone of any developing economy. Healthy population contribute more to economic growth and social development.

There are 2,258 (primary, secondary, and tertiary) public health facility managed by Director General of Health Services (DGHS) and more than 14000 community clinics managed by CBHC catering to large rural as well as urban population. At primary level community clinic, union health and family welfare center, upazila health complex, Mother and Child Welfare Centre; at secondary level district hospital; and at tertiary level medical college and post-graduate specialty hospital provide comprehensive healthcare services to the people of Bangladesh.

Government has approved essential services package (ESP) to be the minimum level of health service delivery at district level and below with clear benefit package defined according to level of health care. There is also a national health care standard approved in 2015 for all tiers of health facilities developed by Health Economics Unit and National strategic planning for quality of care in health service delivery by quality improvement secretariate. Though there are some standards and guidelines in the area of provisioning of quality healthcare services at different level of care, they are fragmented across various national documents. There is no single guidebook for facility managers and policy makers which can guide them in ensuring quality health services to be delivered efficiently and effectively

The lack of standardization of health services across health facilities has both supply and demand side implications. There are always gaps in Supply Side system readiness without comprehensive service standard in place. For instance, when the health infrastructure is completed, it may have the human resources, but without proper diagnosis facilities, guidelines and competency of the existing human resources in place to provide the expected services.

Without proper service standard and gate keeping mechanism, beneficiaries also find it challenging to choose their first point of contact when they need care. The tendency of bypassing primary care is often visible in such health system. Evidence from Health Bulletin 2019 shows that average bed occupancy rate ranges from 189.7% to 334.8% in secondary and tertiary level health facilities to only 80.69% at upazila health complexes. Without national guidelines on infrastructure, human resources and quality standards it is difficult for health facility manager to justify their needs and also for planning division to allocate appropriate resources to health facilities.

Therefore, a comprehensive national public health service standard is required for improving efficiency at public health facilities. It will also help DGHS to efficiently allocate resources and monitor performance of health facilities vis-à-vis national standards. There is a need for comprehensive guidebook for health facilities which includes catchment population, services delivered, equipment, medicines, infrastructure, human resources and other health facilities for efficiently managing health facilities.

Description of duties:

In collaboration with WHO Country Office Bangladesh, the consultant will undertake following scope of work during assignment in close consultation with the Technical Officer - integrated health service delivery and team lead health systems:

• Conduct situational analysis (desk review) by reviewing various policy document of health service standard such as essential health services package (ESP), national standard of health care, operational management of health services in Bangladesh including health service standard of the South-East Asia Region
• Review the findings of health facility assessments, human resource for health reports to understand the supply-side health system readiness status and gaps.
• Consolidate information from desk review and secondary data sources to organize available information in structured manner and identify gaps in the health service standards
• Conduct health facility survey to verify current status of service standard and the bottle neck of health services standardization.
• Develop a comprehensive national public health service standard for different level of care tailored to Bangladesh along with accountability and monitoring framework for quality assurance.
• Facilitate technical consultations with stakeholders such as professional associations and civil societies, clinicians, public health experts, health administrators, health managers and key policy makers of MOHFW and DGHS to validate draft report.
• Provide technical support to DGHS for dissemination of the national public health service standard for Bangladesh

3. Deliverables:

1. An inception report with details of work plan with milestone (Gannt Chart) for development of national public health service standards including the situational analysis report (desk review), methods and timeline for facility survey, Number of Workdays required: 5, Deadline for completion(from date of signing of contract) 10 days

2. Progress report based on the workplan, report on desk review / gap analysis, Number of Workdays required: 10, Deadline for completion(from date of signing of contract) 45 days

3. Report on health facility survey with clearly identified gaps and input for draft report, Number of Workdays required: 10, Deadline for completion(from date of signing of contract) 75 days

4. Draft National Public Health Service Standard by level of care detailing

• Functions and Services offered
• Physical infrastructure
• human resources (skill mix),
• Equipment norms
• Diagnostic services,
• List of medicines, consumables, reagents etc
• Transport facility and referral pathway
• Dietary facility for inpatient (if applicable)
• Medical waste management
• Requirements for Operation Theatre (if any)
• Framework for statutory compliance and monitoring framework
• Citizen’s Charter

Number of Workdays required: 45, Deadline for completion(from date of signing of contract) 120 days

5. Final proposed National Public Health Service Standard by level of care, Number of Workdays required: 10, Deadline for completion (from date of signing of contract) 150 days

4. Educational Qualifications:

Essential: University degree in health sciences (MBBS/equivalent or public health or medicine related subject) from a recognized university. Master’s in public health or health policy and planning or health economics/hospital administration.

Desirable: A Ph.D. in health policy/systems/planning or health service delivery/ management/ administration or public health from a recognized university.

Experience:

Essential:

• At least 20 years of experience working in clinical health services /hospital management/ public health and health systems research.
• Active involvement in development of health service standard, standard treatment guideline and/or standard operating procedure (SOPs), policy, strategy at national and international level.
• Experienced in designing the health service standard for primary health care in Bangladesh.
• Practical experiences of modeling/implementation of similar project.
• Involved in evaluation/assessment of health service standard/standard of quality of care specially at primary health care level related project in the context of Bangladesh. Has strong insight and knowledge of health services of Bangladesh and the South-East Asia Region

Desirable:

• Similar experience in other low or middle-income countries will be an asset.
• Clear understanding about the public health services and government systems of Bangladesh.
• Work experience with DGHS, MOHFW, WHO and other UN organizations and humanitarian organizations or non-governmental organization in Bangladesh.

Skills/Knowledge:

• Demonstrated skills of development of comprehensive health service standard at different level of care in the South-East Asian Region;
• At least 2 peer reviewed publications in international journal on health service standard and guidelines development and implementation;
• Demonstrated interpersonal skills and ability to communicate with diverse stakeholders to create consensus around issues and capable of working in multi-cultural environments;

Strong (written and oral) command of English.

Competencies:

• Producing results
• Communicating in credible and effective way
• Knowing and managing yourself
• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural difference

Languages and level required (Basic/Intermediate/Expert):

• English – Expert
• Bangla – Intermediate

Computer Literacy:

Familiar with MS-Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint)

5. Location :

On-site: The consultant can work from WHO Bangladesh office at Dhaka or Office of Director (Planning and Research), DGHS, Dhaka as mutually agreed by WHO and DGHS officials. Duty Station: Dhaka, Bangladesh

This consultancy also require travel to field for observational visits and data collection.

6. Travel

During the contract period, the consultancy may involve travel to various districts for data collection for gap analysis.

7. Remuneration (Travel costs are excluded):

Pay band level: NO-C

Remuneration currency: BDT

Pay band range: NO-C (Minimum) Daily BDT 32,044/-

Additional Information:

• This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test may be used as a form of screening.
• If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
• For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int.
• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• Applications from women are encouraged.
• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.
• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.
• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.
• WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant. The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.
• This assignment is subject to local recruitment and will be filled by persons recruited in the local commuting area of the duty station/assignment location.