Provincial govts asked to allocate lands for 46 hospitals

ISLAMABAD: On Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s directives, the federal government has written letters to the chief secretaries of four provinces, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration for allocation of land for the construction of 46 hospitals.

These hospitals will be fully-funded by the federal government with state-of-the-art facilities and designed by the international consultants. Nawaz has ordered their completion before the end of the government tenure to realise his dream of the social corridor across the length and breadth of the country, said a press
release issued by the PM
Office media wing on
Saturday.

This corridor will translate into reality the prime minister’s vision of establishing a tertiary care health network across the country.

“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.

The proposed sites in Punjab for 500-bed hospitals are Rajanpur, Jhang, Bhakkar, Sadiqabad and Rawalpindi, with 250-bed hospitals in Burewala, Ahmedpur East, Kot Addu, Taunsa, Sahiwal (Sargodha), Pasroor and Layyah.

500-bed hospitals each would be constructed in Jacobabad, Mirpurkhas and Badin, while 250-bed facilities in Islamkot, Naushero Feroze and Meher districts of Sindh.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 500-bed hospitals would be set up in Haripur and Charsadda, 250-bed units in Battagram, Hangu and Chitral and 100-bed hospitals in Garhi Habibullah and Kaghan.

In Balochistan, 100-bed hospitals would be constructed in Hub, Noshki, Chaman and Panjgur, 250-bed hospitals in Khuzdar, Loralai and Sibi and a 500-bed hospital in Quetta.

The 250-bed hospitals would be constructed in Skardu and Gilgit, a 100-bed hospital in Karimabad (Hunza) and a 50-bed hospital at Ghanche in Gilgit-Baltistan.

A 250-bed hospital would be constructed in Muzaffarabad, 100-bed hospitals in Rawalakot, Kotli and Athmaqam with a 50-bedhospital at Leepa in Azad Kashmir.

Land would also be allocated for three hospitals in the federal capital, which are to lessen the burden on Federal Government Services Hospital (also known as Polyclinic) and PIMS (Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University).

Besides easing access for the residents of the surrounding areas, the three hospitals would also cater for the patients of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

After completion these, hospitals will run on the best management model having minimum government control with best service delivery.

The selection of districts for the proposed hospitals has been made keeping in view the Poverty Index and availability of health infrastructure across provinces.