Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Raffique has said that the corporate sector should play an effective role for the eradication of disease, illiteracy, and other social problems.
He said that the Punjab government in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company, Novartis, has been providing free medicine to blood cancer patients for the last three years, at a cost of Rs 13 billion.
Patients from across the province can register themselves at any of the four centres in Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, Allied Hospital, Faisalabad and Nishter Hospital, Multan. According to the minister, more centres for the registration and treatment of patients would be set up in the new fiscal year.
He stated this while addressing a seminar on World Cancer Day in connection with the 3rd anniversary of the joint venture between the Punjab Government and Novartis in a local hotel on Saturday.
Earlier, Prof Mehmood Shaukat gave a presentation on the performance of the project. He informed the audience that 3,143 chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients had been registered and that all patients were being provided medicines every month. He said that since the medicines are very costly, patients had been asked to return empty packets of the medicines to ensure proper utilisation.
The health minister said that the continuation of the project had been approved and that its scope would be extended to other divisional headquarters to facilitate patients. He was of the view that the patient load at teaching hospitals could be reduced by strengthening the district and tehsil headquarter (DHQ and THQ) hospitals. “Therefore, up-gradation of the emergency services of DHQs and THQs has been begun. CT scan machines will also be provided to all DHQs during the current financial year,” he said.
He said that the government was working for a network of hospitals to be established in the province. “Acknowledgement and encouragement of doctors and nurses who are providing medical care to millions of patients are also very essential,” the minister said.
Salman Raffique further said that the health department had successfully vaccinated 35 lakh pregnant women against tetanus. “Moreover, as a result of the efforts of the officers and staff of the Punjab Health Department, the province reported no cases of polio. This is proof of their hard work. Hopefully 2017 will be as successful a year for the department as 2016 was,” he said.
Prof Sheheryar, Prof Zeba Aziz, Prof Mehmood Shaukat, Prof Arif Siddiqui, Prof Ejaz, Prof Attika, Novartis representatives, and a large number of clinicians from different hospitals attended the seminar.
