Minister for early completion of health projects

LAHORE:Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid reviewed the performance of development initiatives in the province in a meeting at the Committee Room of the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education here on Monday.

The meeting was attended by the Special Secretary Development Nadir Chatha, Additional Secretary Asif Tufail, Chief Planning Officer Abdul Haq Bhatti and other officials of the department.

The minister reviewed the progress at the Nishter 2 Multan, Institute of Cardiology Dera Ghazi Khan, installation of incinerators at Teaching Hospitals, Sehat Insaf Cards, University of Child Health Sciences at Children Hospital, MCH Sialkot and other ongoing projects in Punjab.

The minister said that all ongoing schemes must be completed in time. “Punjab is implementing a large number of development projects in the province. The previous government left a lot of projects incomplete. For decades, no new hospital has been started in Punjab. We are building new hospitals in view of the scale of Punjab’s problems and its population. When we took over, we found a lot of projects which were developed only for sake of name plaques. The work on upgrading of facilities is under way at full pace,” she said.

Unicef team: Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said here on Monday that Punjab is laying special emphasis on mother and child health to improve performance and achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The minister met with Unicef delegation at the Committee Room of the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department. Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Capt (Retd) Usman Younus, Special Secretary PSH Ajmal Bhatti, Director General Health Services Dr Haroon Jehangir, Chief Field Office Unicef Wilbroad Ngambi and other officials of Unicef and the department attended the meeting. Unicef team appreciated the progress made in Punjab regarding healthcare service delivery. The minister apprised them of different initiatives, especially the Sehat Insaf Cards.

The minister said: “We have distributed Sehat Insaf Cards to in all 36 districts of Punjab. The cards were given and to low income group people and in the next phase we will distribute them to the disabled, transgenders and Thalassemia patients. People are availing free health services from over 200 private hospitals besides the government hospitals.”

Highlighting the other initiatives, the minister said: “We are providing interest free loans to doctors to start business. Through referral system we are providing services to people on their doorstep. The government has started School Health and Nutrition Programme in the province. In this programme over 50,000 children will be screened for their nutritional status. Special Secretary Ajmal Bhatti gave recommendations for strengthening of joint initiatives with Unicef. The Unicef team said they hoped for more initiatives with the government.

infection-free: To provide a healthy and germs-free environment, a ceremony was held at Lahore General Hospital to unfold “logo free infection”.

Post-Graduate Medical Institute & Ameer Uddin Medical College Principal Prof Dr Muhammad Al-Fareed Zafar said provision of an infection-free environment in hospitals is a key component of standard healthcare. He added if proper environment is not provided, hospital beds’ occupancy also increases.

PGMI principal said all senior and junior employees of the hospital have to make a commitment that they will use all their energies and capabilities to make Lahore General Hospital infection-free so that everyone who comes to the hospital can feel himself secured.