Department of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education on Tuesday hosted a Diabetes Forum in Lahore.
The forum was inaugurated by Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education (SHC&ME) Khawaja Salman Rafique and Denmark’s Ambassador to Pakistan Ole Thonke.
Addressing the event, Khawaja Salman Rafique said “as per the chief minister’s vision for improving health and wellbeing of people in province, the Punjab Diabetes Forum 2016 will be a great example of public-private partnership and will act as a milestone in fight against diabetes in the province.”
This forum will help identify the strategies and way-forward for the better advocacy and awareness campaigns in Punjab against diabetes. It will also help train and educate not only the students and health professionals, including doctors and nurses, but will also create awareness among general public for importance of living a healthy lifestyle, he said,
The Punjab and Denmark governments have joined hands to make efforts in fight against diabetes and to provide easy and free access to the public for treatment and medication.
A number of speakers including KEMU VC Professor Faisal Masood and Professor Khadija Irfan Khawaja also addressed the forum and highlighted the seriousness of the issue and its prevention.
Diabetes is a growing disease in Pakistan and it is estimated that about 7 million people in Pakistan live with diabetes. It is predicted that by 2035, the number of people with diabetes will nearly double to 12.8 million. 10 people die every hour in Pakistan from diabetes-related causes often by heart attacks and strokes.
On this occasion, the Danish envoy said that Denmark has close to 100 years of experience fighting diabetes and that it wants to share it with Pakistan. The public and private sector needs to join forces with all stakeholders in the health sector for the overall public good. In Pakistan, the Embassy of Denmark is actively working with the federal and provincial governments as well as the private sector to address the increasing burden of diabetes, he said.
SHC&ME Secretary Najam Shah said that improving the health care system has been a priority of the government of Punjab. We are aware of growing diabetes issue in Punjab and are taking conducive initiatives with the support of Embassy of Denmark in Pakistan for the advocacy of prevention and control of this disease.
The encouraging factor is the belief of Punjab government in a public-private partnership model and the plan is to implement the same model in the healthcare system as well. He also nominated Prof. Faisal Masood as Taskforce on Diabetes Chairman.
An ‘action plan’ was presented to the SHC&ME minister, outlining the activities for future training of health practitioners in Punjab, including doctors and nurses, creating awareness in Punjab for the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.
