Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif officially launched the "Chief Minister's Children's Heart Surgery Programme" for the free treatment and surgery of children with heart disease, during her visit to Lahore’s Children's Hospital Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Ward on Monday.
She also distributed "Child Surgery Cards" among the deserving patients under the Programme, according to state media, APP.
”The operation of a sick child will be done in a private hospital if there is no place in the government hospitals," she said after the announcement.
Moreover, she inspected the ward's High Dependency Unit (HDU) and other departments of the hospital and reviewed various facilities available in the cardiac surgery ward.
The Punjab CM inquired about the well-being of the young patients, gave them gifts and played ludo with them.
She interacted with the children and prayed: ”May Allah grant you health, we all pray for you.”
Additionally, she talked to the parents of the sick children and asked them about the availability of various facilities.
”It is my mission to free every citizen of Punjab, including children, from the system of queues and waiting," she said, adding: ”The number of specialist surgeons and allied staff will be increased to multiply the capacity of pediatric heart surgery in the government hospitals.”
Furthermore, the Punjab CM said: ”In the first phase, pediatric heart surgery facility is being provided in 6 government and designated private hospitals including PIC (Punjab Institute of Cardiology) and Children's Hospital Lahore, Multan's Children's and PIC, and Faisalabad and Rawalpindi Cardiology Institutes.”
She added: ”In the second phase, facilities for pediatric heart surgery will also be provided in the hospitals of Wazirabad, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur and Sargodha.” She also observed the dashboard developed to monitor the programme.
CM Maryam also said: ”I am extremely happy to launch the project as a mother, not as the Chief Minister.”
”I can understand the shock that mothers go through on the death of a child," she added.
Maryam also visited the "play area" for children with heart diseases in the Children's Hospital, and reviewed various facilities available for them there.
She said: ”The provision of modern facilities for children's heart surgery is a sincere effort to wipe the tears of mothers and remove the diseases of young children.”
The hospital authorities informed the CM that "more than 5000 young children die every year due to a lack of timely heart surgery."
She said in Pakistan’s first treatment centre for children, young patients from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other provinces would also be treated. "Children suffering from heart disease will not have to wait for long," Maryam added.
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