Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja said owing to increasing influx of patients to the tertiary hospitals from far-flung rural areas of the province, Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has decided to launch rescue-1122 Emergency Ambulance Service in rural areas to save the lives of critical patients.
Rescue-1122 emergency services will be integrated to the tertiary hospitals with the technical collaboration of public health experts of the Republic of Turkey for this purpose, he said.
He expressed these views while talking to the 9-member Turkish delegation of public health experts currently on a 10-day visit to Punjab.
The delegation head Dr Hassan Shah expressed pleasure over provision of a chance to them to play a part in giving comfort to the Pakistani brethren suffering from various diseases by improving the healthcare system initially by introducing short term curative measures in hospital management.
Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja informed the Turkish delegation that Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has desired to establish ‘Public Hospital Management Agency’ on the analogy of Turkish Public Health Management Agency in the province of Punjab.
A 15-point MoU has already been inked in a ceremony held at Hazoori Bagh Lahore on November 17 this year, in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to collaborate with the Punjab government in transforming the health sector.
Khawaja said that the Punjab government wanted to outsource non-core clinical services, medical research, diagnostic facilities, incineration, laundry services, parking and security arrangements of two tertiary hospitals, one in Lahore and one in Faisalabad along with two secondary healthcare hospitals of the Sheikhupura and Muzaffargarh districts.
The Punjab government will also seek technical collaboration in short term training of hospital managers and nurses apart from establishing family health services model and Emergency Services Control and Command System in the public sector hospitals across the province.
Earlier, head of the Turkish delegation was received at the Civil Secretariat Lahore by Adviser on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, Parliamentary Secretary on Health Khawaja Imran Nazir, ACS Shamail Ahmad Khawaja, Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Secretary Najam Ahmad Shah, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan, Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore Principal Dr Mahmood Shaukat, Mayo Hospital Lahore Chief Executive Dr Asad Aslam Khan, Punjab Healthcare Commission Chief Operating Officer Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Health Planning and Development Board member Dr Shabana Haider, SH&ME and P&SH special secretaries, health services director general, Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab DG, Punjab Public Health Agency Acting Chief Executive and Institute of Public Health dean in Punjab. The delegation was accorded warm welcome and the parliamentarians, technocrats and bureaucrats termed the Turkish collaboration in health sector a good omen for the people of the province.