Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman said the government has focused on primary healthcare to provide international level healthcare to public and for this purpose Rs 102 billion will be spent during next fiscal year.
Talking to various delegations on Monday, he stressed that poor and middle class segments of society have not been burdened in the budget 2013-14 and taxes have been imposed only on the affluent.
He said protective healthcare programmes would be continued to save children from epidemic, communicable and non-communicable diseases. He said the Punjab government was appointing gynaecologists in public hospitals of the province and had focused on the health of infants and mothers and for this purpose free delivery services were being provided to pregnant women at rural health centres.
He said Rs 2 billion would be spent to launch a comprehensive mother and child healthcare programme.
Rehman said the district governments would be given Rs 239 billion in the next financial year. The provincial minister said the Punjab government had decided to issue health cards to the poor and resourceless people so that they could avail better treatment facilities and a sum of Rs 4 billion had been earmarked in the budget for this purpose. He said Rs 1.40 billion had been allocated in the budget for hospitals in Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan.
