PML-N govt ignored health: minister

LAHORE : Minister for Information and Culture Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan has said focus on health and education is more important than train and bus projects.

Addressing a conference organised by the Pakistan Society of Family Physicians (PSFP) at a local hotel on Saturday, Chohan said the present government had extended the facility of health insurance cards to all 36 districts of the province apart from increasing their credit limit from Rs 300,000 to Rs 360,000.

He said the vacant vacancies for doctors and paramedics in the province would be filled soon. “Unfortunately, the previous government paid more attention on metro bus and orange train instead of improving the province’s health and education infrastructure”, the minister lamented.

The so-called Khadim-e-Aala curtailed the budget allocated to health and education, and spent it on metro bus and orange train projects”, he noted. He said the previous government had appointed a person as health minister who was more interested in land business than the health sector.

Chohan said several simmering issues confronted by the health community mainly by the young doctors could not be addressed in the last 10 years. “The former chief minister spent most of his time on photo shoots instead of doing something lucrative for the people of Punjab.”

Following the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa model, the Punjab government is introducing reforms- most of which already approved by the provincial cabinet- in the health sector, he said.

Appreciating the PSFP’s services in the health sector, Chohan assured that the incumbent government would utilise all available resources to address the issues faced by the medical community on a priority basis. In this connection, he said, the government would continue to consult with the PSFP in future. He also assured that he would arrange a meeting between the PSFP office bearers and the provincial health minister to find a mutual way to address the issues.