Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided over a meeting to discuss progress on the improvement of the provincial healthcare system and the provision of better medical facilities to the people here on Tuesday.
During the meeting, the chief minister approved the purchase of incinerators for 36 districts. Addressing the meeting, Shehbaz Sharif said that speedy measures were being taken to provide better healthcare facilities to the people and that the provincial government was responsible for providing comfort to distressed people.
He said that a comprehensive program has been made to provide medicines to patients at their homes and under the first phase of the program, hepatitis patients will be targeted.
The chief minister said that measures should be reviewed to provide medicines to heart patients at their houses and immediate measures should be taken in this regard. He said that the program will reduce traffic in hospitals and that the program should be completed in the shortest possible time.
He said that the Punjab government is establishing a modern warehouse to store medicines as per international standards and that a cold chain management system was being introduced in this regard. Shehbaz Sharif said effective measures are being taken for the infection control program in hospitals and that with the installation of incinerators, hospital waste will be discarded in an effective manner with private hospitals being duty bound to dump their waste properly.
The chief minister said that samples of medicines will be tested from foreign labs and that the government will take every possible measure to provide standardised medicines. He said that the government was spending Rs 6 billion annually to provide free medicines, adding that the modern drug testing lab in Lahore was completely functional and had a paperless system. He said speedy measures are being taken to make drugs testing labs functional in four other cities.
Provincial Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique participated in the meeting via a video link from Rawalpindi. Provincial Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Adviser Dr Umer Saif, the finance secretary, Punjab healthcare commission commissioner, Punjab forensic science agency DG, primary and secondary health secretary and other concerned officials were also present on the occasion.
