LAHORE: Healthcare is the top most concern of the government, which has already spent billions of rupees on different healthcare projects, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.
He expressed these views during the inaugurating ceremony of the country’s first kidney transplantation project at the Sheikh Zayed Hospital. The PM also announced a grant of Rs 100 million for the operational cost of the project and expressed hope that the funds be utilised “diligently and transparently”.
Gilani appreciated the Punjab CM’s gesture of allocating 600 kanals of state land for a construction of a new campus of the Sheikh Zayed Medical College. He said that the government had already spent billion of rupees for kidney-related diseases. Gilani also appealed to affluent people to come forward and donate money for a noble cause.
The PM also donated his liver on the occasion. He said that the Sheikh Zayed Hospital was a premier health institution, which had worked for the benefit of the people. Talking to journalists on passage of the RGST Bill, Gilani said, “My strength is parliament and the federal government will take along all stakeholders in this regard.”
He said, “For the first time the Pakistan Army is supporting the civilian setup. They are loyal to the country and fighting a war against terrorism.” Earlier, Sheikh Zayed Hospital Dean Professor Anwar A Khan said that the newly-inaugurated kidney transplant centre would save a lot of foreign exchange, as a liver transplant costs Rs 6 million to Rs 25 million abroad.
He said that the hospital needed Rs 150 million per year for providing different treatment facilities to poor patients. Anwar urged the federal and provincial government to release the already announced funds for the hospital. The hospital dean said that the hospital would be enhanced to more than 1,000 beds next year.
Separately, the Punjab Health Department released funds for salaries of daily wages employees of the Multan Institute of Cardiology (MIC). A department spokesman said that the MIC finance director had released Rs 18.5 million in this regard.
Healthcare is govt’s top priority: PM
