Minister opens modern virtual hospital technology

LAHORE: Provincial Health Minister Dr Javed Akram has said that the use of modern technology in health sector is the need of the day and online treatment facility is being introduced in the City, which will greatly benefit the patients.

He expressed these views on the occasion of the inauguration of modern virtual hospital technology at the annual conference of The Health Bank (THB) Global at the Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine.

Dr Javed Akram said that The Health Bank THB Global has improved health in Pakistan. The development projects announced in the sector are commendable. The minister said that the virtual hospital would provide its patients with personalised care both at home and online.

Zarmina Jafar, Chief Executive of THB Global, said that after Singapore, Dubai, Karachi, Kuwait City, now our offices in Lahore are dedicated to helping people live a healthy life comfortably at their homes.

He said that people do not have enough time to visit hospital again and again while virtual hospital would provide them with all kinds of online treatment facilities and doctors would also go to their homes for check-up.

Chief Med Tech Innovation Officer, Dr Sohail Chughtai said that the way forward for the treatment of diseases was found and MoUs were signed with various institutions. Prof Dr Bilal Ahmed, Prof Dr Soumya Iqtidar, Prof Dr Farhan Isa Abdullah and others also addressed the conference.

MEDICINE SHORTAGE: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has expressed its concern over the shortage of different medicine, especially life-saving drugs, all over Pakistan.

According to PMA (Centre) Secretary General Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, PMA had warned the government that due to closure of LCs for importing raw material for manufacturing medicine and increase in manufacturing cost can be resulted in shortage of medicine. He demanded the government solve problems of drug manufacturers as the problems of the manufacturers continued to rise and patients and their families suffer due to non-availability of their required medicine.

Our health delivery system is already in a shambles and shortage of medicines will take the situation from bad to worse. If the suitable measures are not taken to control the situation, eventually poor patients will suffer the most.