Treatment facilities being improved in hospitals: minister

LAHORE:Caretaker Provincial Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Dr Jamal Nasir said that in line with the vision of Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, the caretaker government was focusing on improvement of treatment facilities including laboratories in the government hospitals. He said this while addressing a meeting of the CEOs of the District Health Authorities on Monday.

The minister warned of stringent action against doctors of government hospitals who advised patients to have diagnostic tests from private laboratories or purchase prescribed medicine from open market adding that two doctors involved in such practices have already been suspended at Narowal and Sheikhupura respectively.

The minister said that facilities for all important and necessary medical tests were available in the laboratories at government hospitals. Therefore, the doctor should not ask patients to buy their medicines from open market or bear expenditure for laboratory tests, the minister stressed.

He said that the doctors should prescribe only such tests, which were unavoidable for diagnosis. He informed that in this regard SOPs have been notified in order to improve the quality and enhance reliability of diagnostic tests by these laboratories.

Directions have been issued to display the SOPs prominently in the laboratories to ensure strict compliance by the relevant staff, he added.