–P&S Healthcare, SH&ME refute Khan’s claims saying both departments working diligently to provide quality services
LAHORE: As Punjab Chief Minister and president of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif travelled to London for his routine medical check-up earlier this week, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan criticising the former said that Shehbaz during his ten-year tenure in the province could not establish even a single state-of-the-art public hospital where he could seek medical treatment.
The PTI chief training guns on the Punjab government also said that the state-of-the-art Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital was built in Peshawar with a cost of 4 billion rupees where his party was in the government, but Shehbaz could not spare 4 billion rupees to establish such a health facility despite the fact that he spent 6.5 trillion on various development projects in Punjab during his two consecutive stints as the chief minister. Khan also said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government did “nothing for the welfare of the people”.
However, responding to Imran Khan’s criticism, both the Primary and Secondary Healthcare and Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education departments of the Shehbaz-led Punjab government stepped in to refute Khan’s claims while saying that both the health departments of Punjab were working diligently to provide quality health services to the people and a hefty amount of 230 billion rupees was allocated for both the health departments during the fiscal year 2016-17.
Sharing the details of Primary and Secondary Healthcare with Pakistan Today, the spokesperson for both the health departments Ikhlaq Ali Khan said that revamping of 40 district and tehsil headquarters hospitals was carried out during the years 2106 and 2017 while the restoration of 15 emergency wards was also underway.
As per the details shared by the department regarding the initiatives taken in 2016-17, there were 220 ambulances functioning under the Rural Ambulance Service in 35 districts of the province right now and the figure would be increased to 477 by the end of 2018. The department further told that the medicine for Hepatitis had been provided to over 17,000 patients at their doorstep since August 2017 while the Punjab Hepatitis Ordinance had also been implemented in the province.
“As many as 2461 Basic Health Units (BHUs) are operational in the province while 803 BHUs are providing around-the-clock services,” the data stated and further revealed that a health insurance scheme had also been introduced in 4 districts.
Moreover, Mobile Health Units (MHUs) were operational in 6 districts while in the near future the units would be available in 14 other districts as well, and a comprehensive mechanism to control drug addiction had also been introduced and 5 laboratories for drug testing were functional in the province.
CT scan machines were available in 5 districts while the installations in 20 other districts were also underway. The motorbike ambulance service of Rescue 1122 was also functional in Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala and Sahiwal and it would soon be expanded across Punjab.
“Several initiatives were taken by the Primary and Secondary Healthcare department during 2016-17 including provision of quality medicines to patients for free using Rs12 billion allocated, formation of Punjab Health Facilities Management Company, implementation of Anesthetist Management System, formation of Cold Chain Management System, inauguration of Safe Mother Ambulance service, setting up of Hepatitis clinics in 100 DHQ and THQ hospitals across the province,” the spokesperson for the department said.
Speaking of the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education department, the spokesman said that a hefty amount of 132.784 billion rupees was earmarked for the department during the ongoing fiscal year of 2017-18. “The department has completed the Surgical Tower at Mayo hospital that will contain 18 operation theatres along with the facility of MRI and 410 beds,” the data said while also adding that medical colleges in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan) had also been established and construction of teaching hospitals (consisting of 500 beds each) attached with these medical colleges had also been completed.
As per the data shared by the department, new medical universities had been established in Punjab including the Fatimah Jinnah Medical University, Punjab Medical University, Nishtar Medical University and the Rawalpindi Medical University while the construction of the Mian Meer, Manawan, Bedian Road Lahore, Sabza Zar, Samanabad and Raiwand hospitals had also been completed and all the trauma centers were completely functional and a new medical college in Lahore namely the Ameeruddin Medical College had also been established.
Moreover, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with Novartis Pharma to ensure that medicines worth Rs6 billion for different diseases including diabetes, lung cancer, heart and respiratory diseases are provided to the patients free of cost and the government with the help of Novartis Pharma would provide medicines to nine thousand cancer patients for free which would be worth 44 billion rupees.
“The Punjab government also introduced the Central Induction Policy in order to make the admission of PG doctors transparent. In CIP, special marks were allocated for serving at BHU’s and therefore 95 % doctors can be found in our units across the province as most of the doctors try to get posted there under this policy,” the spokesperson said. As many as 2000 beds had been increased in the tertiary and specialised hospitals across the province, he added.
Meanwhile, spokesman of the Punjab government Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, while reacting to Imran Khan’s statements, said that Khan should avoid hypocrisy and stop telling lies because the Punjab government had set up dozens of hospitals in the province.
He said that Punjab was not only providing healthcare facilities to its people but a large number of patients from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were also benefiting from hospitals of Rawalpindi, Bhakkar and Multan.
“The Punjab government has uplifted and improved the quality of 170 hospitals and a sum of Rs262 billion has been provided to the health department this year,” he said.
“Had Imran Khan given any attention to the matters pertaining to his province, KP would have developed like Punjab,” said the spokesman.
He also said that Imran Khan could not hide his poor performance by telling lies and the whole country was a witness to the fact that network of development projects had been spread across Punjab.
“Punjab government’s performance was also acknowledged by foreign ambassadors and international organisations,” he said and added that Imran Khan had used politics to level baseless allegations while politics was the name of selfless public service.
“Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ensured speedy completion of development projects while maintaining transparency as well as quality,” he concluded.