LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique on Tuesday told the Punjab Assembly that all the district level government hospitals would be provided with the CT scan machines by the end of the current year.
“The step is being taken to minimise the flow of patients to hospitals in Lahore,” the minister added.
Answering queries by lawmakers during question hour session, the minister said, the Punjab government was giving top priority to provide the best medical facilities to the masses and made a considerable budget allocation in this regard.
The minister said that a comprehensive plan was in place to improve the condition of the government hospitals by equipping them with the latest medical gadgets including oxygen cylinders, ventilators, CT scan machines and X-Ray machines etc.
To a question by Jama’at e Islami Parliamentary leader Dr Wasim Akhtar, the minister responded that 209 cases of Open Heart Surgery were carried out in Mayo Hospital Lahore during the period of June 30, 2012 to 1st July 2013. Out of these patients, 133 underwent by-pass operation while valves of 76 patients were changed. Seven patients were expired, he added.
Rafique replied to another question by the same questioner that separate wards were handling cases of mentally sick and addict patients in all the government hospitals across the province.
He said six clinical psychiatrists were appointed in the Punjab Institute of Mental Health while posts for 153 psychiatrists had been sanctioned in various hospitals.
Responding to a question by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Mian Tariq Mehmood, the minister said, a burn unit has been operational at Jinnah Hospital Lahore and extending complete surgery facilities to the patients with the burn injuries.
The minister, agreeing with a questioner Dr Muhammad Afzal, admitted that no unit dealing with acid throwing cases in Bahawalpur district existed. However, he said, the government was intending to set up a burn unit in Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital.
Responding to another question, he said that in Lahore General Hospital, medicines worth Rs 290,087,760 were purchased and distributed free of cost among the patients during 2013. In Mayo Hospital, medicines worth Rs 444,154,598, in Ganga Ram Hospital Rs 258,802,244 and Services Hospital medicines worth Rs 514,913,861 were given to patients during the period under question.
Responding to a question by Dr Aalia Aftab, the minister said, a total of 428 ventilators and 11 CT scan machines were at hospitals in the district and for the purchase of new 115 ventilators, an allocation had already been made in the Annual Development Programme.
