‘40 hospitals to be revamped by June 2017’

LAHORE

Provincial Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir has directed the medical superintendents of all the district headquarters and tehsil headquarters hospitals to improve the performance of their hospitals and ensure proper healthcare for the patients.

He directed that wheelchairs, stretchers along with service providers must be deputed outside the emergency wards of every hospital to ensure timely provision of medical aid to critical patients. He warned that pilferage of medicines and slackness of duties would not be tolerated at any cost.

He stated this while addressing a meeting of all the DHQ and THQ hospitals at the Directorate General Health Services Punjab, according to a handout issued here on Sunday.

Khawaja Imran Nazir said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was endeavouring to provide a quality healthcare system to the people of Punjab. The chief minister is personally visiting the hospitals to evaluate the performance of health managers and health providers. He said that health sector development was the passion of the chief minister.

The minister revealed that revamping of 40 DHQs/THQs hospitals had been started and hopefully it would be completed by June 2017, for which medical superintendents have to play an important role with dedication for timely completion of revamping of their hospitals.

He directed that provision of medicines to the poor and deserving patients in the hospital should be ensured and complete record of local purchase of medicines also be maintained. He directed the medical superintendents to convene meetings of all the staff of their hospitals and expedite them regarding their responsibilities with new directions.

The minister maintained that lethargic attitude of the employees was not acceptable and no tolerance would be shown to such officials. The meeting also discussed the issue of vector-borne viral disease ‘Chikungunya’ which is very similar to dengue and it spreads through dengue mosquito.

Secretary Ali Jan Khan directed the medical superintends and all the officers of the department to take immediate steps for controlling and combating ‘Chikungunya’ which is present in many countries in the region, including India so that the disease could not spread in Punjab. He said dengue and vector surveillance should be focused and SOPs of dengue prevention should be implemented. The meeting was informed that sufficient stock of medicines for HIV patients was available with the department.  

Director Punjab AIDS Control Progremme (PACP) Dr Adnan Zafar informed the meeting that PACP was providing medicines to all the registered HIV AIDS patients free-of-cost on regular basis. The meeting reviewed the pace of work on revamping of the hospitals and other development scheme. The meeting took stock of attendance of staff in the hospitals, availability of medicines, functioning, repair and maintenance of medical equipment, cleanliness and sanitation issues in the hospitals individually.