Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique has said that all efforts are being made to provide the best possible treatment facilities.
The Punjab government has established regional blood centres in Multan and Bahawalpur in the first phase of the collaboration with the German government. He said that 11 hospitals from southern Punjab had been attached with the centres. In the second phase, more centres would be set up in central Punjab and the blood banks of Mayo Hospital and Jinnah Hospital would also been upgraded. He said that the health department is also planning to establish a regional blood centre in Faisalabad.
The minister stated this while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the newly established regional blood centres at a cost of Rs 300 million at Multan. Salman Rafique further said that the both the centres would provide safe blood to millions of people from Multan, Lodhran, and Bahawalpur. He said that the storage capacity of the blood centre at Multan was 50 thousand pints of blood and both the centres have been equipped with the latest machinery and a trained staff.
Earlier, German Ambassador Ina Lepel lauded the efforts the Punjab government for making efforts to provide quality healthcare services to the people. She said that regional blood centres were a “success story”. She said that safe blood transfusion meant saving human life, and therefore people should donate blood at least thrice a year.
Ina Lepel further said that the German government would continue to extend cooperation for the development of Pakistan. At the end of the ceremony, souvenirs were presented to the health minister and the German ambassador and shields were distributed among other participants.
Multan Deputy Commissioner Nadar Chatha, Prof Hassan Abbas Zaheer, Dr Zafar Iqbal, Dr Masooma Zaidi, Dr Muhammad Yunis, Prof Kamran Salik, MS Nishtar Hospital Dr Ashiq Hussain Malik, Multan District Council Chairman Deewan Abbas Bukhari, Multan Mayor Naveed-ul-Haq Arain and others were also present on the ocassion.
