Centre asks provinces to allocate land for hospitals’ construction

This will translate into reality PM’s vision of providing healthcare

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has asked all federating units, administration of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and the federal capital to allocate suitable piece of lands on urgent basis for building of 46 state-of-the-art hospitals in various parts of the country which have already been designated. The construction of the hospitals will be completed within 20 months and they will cost Rs120 billion. 

Highly-placed official sources stated here on Saturday that on the directions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif the federal government has written letters to chief secretaries of the four provinces, Azad Kashmir and G-B as well as Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration for allocation of land for construction of 46 hospitals across the country.

These 46 hospitals will be fully funded by the federal government with state-of-the-art facilities and will be designed by international consultants. 

The proposed sites for 500-bed hospitals in Punjab are Rajanpur, Jhang, Bhakkar, Sadiqabad and Rawalpindi; in Sindh Jacobabad, Mirpur Khas and Badin; in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Haripur and Charsadda; while in Balochistan the site is Quetta. 

Proposed sites for 250-bed hospitals in Punjab are Burewala, Ahmedpur East, Kot Addu, Taunsa, Sahiwal (Sargodha), Pasroor and Layyah; in Sindh Islam Kot, Nausharo Feroze and Meher districts of Sindh; in KP Batgram, Hangu, Fata and Chitral; while in Balochistan Khuzdar, Loralai and Sibi; in G-B Skardu and Gilgit; in AJK Muzaffarabad 

In addition to that 100 beds hospitals will be constructed at Garhi Habibullah and Kaghan in KP; at Hub, Noshki, Chaman and Punjgur in Balochistan; and at Karimabad (Hunza) in G-B; at Rawlakot, Kotli and Athmuqam in AJK. 

In G-B 50-bed hospital will be constructed at Ghanche while land will be allocated for a 50-bed hospital at Leepa in AJ&K. Land will also be allocated for three hospitals in the federal capital. 

The hospitals will be run in line with the most sophisticated methods of administration after their completion.

They will be run on best management model having minimum control of the government with best service delivery. The selection of districts for the proposed hospitals across the country has been made keeping in view the poverty index and state of health infrastructure in across the provinces.

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has directed to complete these 46 hospitals before the end of tenure of the present government to realise his dream of the social corridor across the length and breadth of the country. This corridor will translate into reality prime minister’s vision of establishing a tertiary care health network in the four Provinces, AJ&K and G-B. “We are simultaneously targeting poverty and diseases in the country as poverty and diseases make a deadly combination in any household”, the prime minister said.