LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday presided over a high-level meeting to review the proposal of setting up a state-of-the-art hospital and medical college in Lahore Knowledge Park by British investors.
Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister said that he regarded it as his mission to bring improvements in healthcare facilities as it was the right of everyone to have access to quality healthcare.
He said that Punjab government has introduced different reforms to improve the healthcare system and it was due to these efforts that medicines previously accessible only to the elite were also available to the poor now.
He said that every possible step was being taken to provide quality treatment to poor patients of Punjab. He vowed that cooperation will be solicited from everywhere for providing such facilities in hospitals.
He said that the proposal of setting up a hospital and medical college in Lahore Knowledge Park by British investors was good news for the public. He directed for a committee to be constituted under chairmen of the planning and development department to finalise the details of the proposal and said that the committee would submit its recommendations within seven days.
Senior official including provincial minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani, advisor Dr Umar Saif and Lahore Knowledge Park Company Chairman Lieutenant General (Retd) Mohammad Akram Khan attended the meeting while the planning and development department chairman participated through a video link.
The Punjab chief minister also revealed the government’s plans of establishing central pathology labs in Lahore and Multan and of establishing smaller labs in hospitals which will be connected with the central labs through satellite. He said that these labs will be equipped to conduct all sorts of health-related tests and would moreover have an information management system. He emphasised that the setting up of these labs was very important and should, therefore, progress at a fast pace.
He said that new hospitals will be established in the province under the public-private partnership model in future.