Punjab Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Minister Salman Rafique on Tuesday said that 2016 has been a successful year for the health sector and the province has remained polio free.
The health minister expressed these views while talking to the media persons in Lahore while crediting Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif efforts in personally monitoring the performance of the health department.
The minister said that polio-free Punjab is the proof that routine immunisation under the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and, anti- polio campaigns had been successfully launched in Punjab.
Rafique discussed the various development projects being completed this year for and construction work of various other projects in the process of completion, disclosing that work is being done to enhance bed capacity and for the provision of latest medical facilities to the patients in Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan.
He said that Drug Testing Laboratory (DTL) of Lahore has been completed while the DTL of Multan would be upgraded by the experts of Turkey’s health ministry and an introduction of the motorbike ambulance service in Punjab for the provision of emergency medical aid to the people.
While responding to a question, the minister informed that burn units of Jinnah Hospital Lahore and Multan have been completed, moreover, the extension block of Children Hospital Lahore was also completed through which 600 beds and new operation theatres have been included in the hospital to reduce the waiting lists of the patients.
He further informed that revamping of 40 DHQ and THQ hospitals has been started besides, the provision of CT scan facility at all the DHQ hospitals and he informed that more mega projects of the health sector would be completed in the next calendar year (2017) including surgical tower of Mayo Hospital and the phase-I of Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute consisting of 300 beds.
Rafique said that the provision of quality healthcare services to the people of Punjab is the mission of the chief minister and the whole team of the health department is endeavoring hard to accomplish this task.
