Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a meeting here on Sunday to review progress on the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute (PKLI), human resource affairs, and the establishment of hepatitis filter clinics. The meeting also led to the decision to establish an endowment fund for the PKLI.
Presiding over the meeting, the chief minister said that work on the kidney and liver medical treatment facility in the provincial capital was in progress. The chief minister said that patients will receive free medical treatment in the 470-bed PKLI, which will prove to be a milestone for the treatment of kidney and liver patients.
Besides the provision of medical facilities to kidney and liver patients, research will also be done in this institute to the prevent the spread of diseases. Shehbaz Sharif said that the first phase of the hospital will be completed and that the institute would begin providing modern medical facilities to patients by the end of the current year. High-quality human resource and state of the art machinery would be available at the institute, he claimed.
Third party audits of the human resource appointed to the institute are also essential and there should be some set up for the modern training of this human resource as well, he added. The chief minister instructed officials to not only prepare a model and plan for training and refresher courses but also for a horticulture plan to beautify the institute.
He said that the Punjab government was working hard on the hepatitis control program and that the hard work had lead to the establishment of the first hepatitis filter clinic at the PKLI. This clinic is already busy providing medical facilities to liver patients, the chief minister said. Shehbaz Sharif said that the similar hepatitis filter clinics will also be established in every district of the province.
The chief minister said that these hepatitis filter clinics will have nothing to do with the health department but would be run by the PKLI. The program to the establish the PKLI and hepatitis filter clinics is a great welfare project he claimed.
PKLI Board of Governors President Dr Saeed Akhtar gave a briefing on the progress of the two projects. Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Imran Nazir, the chief secretary, health and finance secretaries, Punjab Infrastructure Development Authority CEO, Forensic Science Agency DG and other concerned officials also attended the meeting.
