Health service programmes are unproductive in the absence of proper management systems and even an abundance of resources would be a waste and the output ineffective without Health Care Management (HCM).

HCM covers total issues of hospital management and health management, a lack of which has caused hospitals and health programmes in Nepal to be both ineffective and inefficient. HCM aims at improving standards of health through better management of health and related programmes. It seeks to accomplish this through management research, training and capacity building, consultation and institutional networking with a national and global perspective.

Inaugurating the seminar organised by Health Care Management Student’s Society of Nepal (HCMSSN), state minister of health Mohan Bahadur Basnet said that in a situation where a poor population still lacks access to primary health facilities, much still has to be done to improve the scenario. He regarded the importance of HCM in making health programmes effective, even with modest resources. “The output of the seminar, if compiled in a written form, will be an asset to the health sector”, remarked Basnet.

Dr RK Sharma, Department Head, Hospital Administration and Medical Superintendent of All India Institute of Medical Sciences said, “The seminar could act as a forum to sensitise all issues of health care and should be a place to share ideas.” He suggested devising consumer-oriented laws for quality management and maintenance of standard health services. Presenting a paper entitled ‘Management strategies for emergency medical care programme in a disaster situation in hilly terrain’, Sharma said that HCM is a challenging task during such disasters.

The organiser, HCMSSN is the first of its kind in the country and aims to help improve quality of health care management. It also carries out various activities related to health management and conducts research and studies on management aspects of healthcare agencies.