—Health sector development budget doubled, says Khawaja Imran
LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Primary & Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir has said that all the health indicators in Punjab are significantly improving.
He stated this while addressing the launching ceremony of Punjab Health Survey Phase-I, at a local hotel. Planning & Development Department Chairman Jehanzeb Khan, Primary & Secondary Health Special Secretary Dr Faisal Zahoor, Health member Dr Shabana Haider, Bureau of Statistics DG, representatives from DFID, TRF, Punjab Healthcare Commission, International Development Partners, Public Health Experts and senior officers of concerned departments were in attendance.
Particularly, the routine immunisation coverage, antenatal and postnatal healthcare have also been improved, he said. The Minister further said that revamping of 40 DHQ and THQ hospitals would be completed by September this year.
Nazir said that presently, high-quality medicines are being provided in government sector hospitals which were previously only used by the well-off.
He further revealed that one of the benefits of third party survey is that such activities identify the gaps in the system and highlight the different aspects of improvements.
The Minister further said that development in the health sector and provision of quality healthcare to the people is the passion of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, because of which, the development budget of health department has doubled.
Dr Shabana Haider informed that during Punjab Health Survey Phase-I, data of 18,480 houses was collected. She was of the view that postnatal and antenatal healthcare has been improved significantly and skilled birth attendant care has increased 70 percent in Punjab. Dr Shabana further said that Punjab has eradicated the disease of tetanus in pregnant women which has been acknowledged by WHO and UNICEF. She said that the basic purpose of the survey was to improve the system by pointing out the gaps and highlight the improvement carried out by the department.
