A high-level meeting was held here today with Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in the chair. During the meeting, the pace of progress on different ongoing reforms programs for providing better healthcare facilities to the people was reviewed in detail.
The meeting accorded approval to the plan of sending 14 new mobile units and 20 small mobile health units to different districts of the province along with the provision of additional funds to the tune of billions of rupees for the development projects of the health sector.
Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said that six mobile health units are providing qualitative diagnostic and treatment facilities to the rural population at their doorsteps in different far-flung areas.
Out of the procured 14 mobile health units, four units have reached here which will be sent to the districts of Khushab, Bhakkar, Sargodha and Layyah. In the second phase, more mobile health units will be sent to the less developed districts. He said that provision of mobile health units to the backward areas is a revolutionary step of the Punjab government.
The CM added that a digital monitoring system has also been designed to evaluate the performance of these mobile health units. Meanwhile, the program of providing CT scan machines to all the districts of the province is going on in full swing. These CT scan machines have been installed in the district headquarters hospitals of Kasur, Bhakkar, Vehari and Mianwali and will be made functional within a week. The installation of CT scan machines in all the DHQ hospitals of the province will provide round the clock facility of CT scan to the patients.
He said that installation of CT scan machines in the DHQ hospitals will be completed at the end of the current year. The completion of reforms process in 40 hospitals of the province will help provide better facilities to the people.
He said: “The Punjab government has made different far-reaching steps to improve the health sector and added that a sum of Rs 60 billion is being spent on different development projects of health sector. State-of-the-art pathology labs will be set up in Lahore and Multan; while the outsourcing process of radiology and pathology services is in progress, as well”.
The chief minister said that establishment of a healthy society is our mission and vowed that no stone will be left unturned to complete this agenda. He also said that the drug inspection system is being modernized along with the approval of the plan of training of one thousand health managers in secondary hospitals.
The meeting also reviewed the proposal of setting up drug regulatory authority.
Health Minister Kh Imran Nazir, health secretaries, high officials of the health department and concerned departments’ secretaries attended the meeting; while the Chief Secretary participated in the meeting through the video link from Punjab House Islamabad.
