Professional Practices Promoting Health of Healthcare Workers: Comparison of Public and Private Hospitals in Pakistan

Background and Objectives: Health and safety of healthcare workers (HCWs) is a determinant of the quality of healthcare delivered to the population at large. This study aimed at comparing various dimension of HCWs’ health and safety between public and private hospitals (PHs) in the Pakistan context. Methods: A sample of 1146 HCWs from 2 public and 2 PHls in a metropolitan city were invited to response to a structured questionnaire, assessing various aspects of health and safety promotion practices in their hospital. Categorical data were compared using chi-square test or Fisher exact test or likelihood ratio tests. Findings: According to the responders, lack of written policies and guidelines for health promotion was 84% in public hospitals (GHs) vs. 22% in PH (P\u3c.001), communication of health policies, 64% vs. 42% (P\u3e\u3c.001), lack of access to health policies, 68% vs. 40% (P\u3e\u3c.001), lack of professional employees in safety 64% vs. 49%, lack of health promotion activities 91% vs. 51% (P\u3e\u3c.001), and absence of encouragements to participate in healthrelated activities 87% vs. 24% (P\u3e\u3c.001)…. vs. 24% (P\u3c.001). Conclusions: As revealed by our study, there is a large gap in HCWs’ health and safety promoting practices between public and PHs. The situation calls for increased budget and focused program to improve health and safety of HCWs in Pakistan’s GH