The Punjab government has enhanced health budget from Rs 121 billion to Rs 166 billion which will bring about an improvement in the system, Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said on Sunday.
He said three billion rupees were being allocated for the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant and Research Institute Lahore for which the chief minister had already allocated 50 acre land at Bedian Road. He said completion of ongoing development schemes and upgradation of DHQ and THQ hospitals was a top priority.
He said a target of treatment facilities to mother and child and labour room facilities at 700 BHUs would be achieved within a month which would be helpful to control maternal mortality rate.
Salman Rafique said the government was taking steps for providing equal facilities of health in the province and mobile health units were being purchased for providing medical facilities to the people of far-flung areas at local level for which one billion rupees were being allocated in the budget.
Projects of setting up of Institute of Urology & Transplantation at Rawalpindi, kidney centres at Multan and Bahawalpur, expansion in Multan Institute of Cardiology, establishment of children hospitals at Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur, setting up of Institute of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery at Children Hospital Lahore and up-gradation of nursing schools to college level and nursing colleges to center of excellence are part of development budget of health for the year 2015-16.
Kh Salman said that emergency department of newly-built institute of Neuro Sciences at LGH had been made functional whereas 290 million rupees were being provided for making the institution fully operational. He said that 60 million rupees had been allocated for establishment of central research lab at PGMI Lahore.