Shahbaz inaugurates Pakistan’s first hepatitis treatment filter clinic

Appeals to young doctors to end occasional protests and serve humanity

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday inaugurated the Hepatitis Treatment Filter Clinic at the site of Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute & Research Centre and laid the foundation stone of the main building of Pakistan Kidney & Liver Transplant Institute & Research Centre.

With the state-of-the-art machinery, this filter clinic will provide modern and best medical facilities to hepatitis patients whereas the institute will provide modern and best medical facilities to patients with liver transplant facility as well.

Inaugurating the Hepatitis Filter Clinic and laying the foundation stone of the main building of Pakistan Kidney & Liver Transplant Institute & Research Centre, the chief minister said that such filter clinics would be set up in all 36 districts of the province and all these clinics would start providing medical facilities to hepatitis patients at the end of the current year. He said even if they had to import machinery for these filter clinics they would import it by planes and would provide any kind of resources for all this. He said work was being done on the institute and its first phase would be completed on 25th of December and here first operation of liver transplantation would also be possible.

The chief minister said the hospital had to start its working on 14th August 2017 but some reasons caused delay in it and now it would start working at the end of the year. He said that instead of Punjab this project has been named as Pakistan Kidney & Liver Transplant Institute & Research Centre because this institute would provide medical facilities to people from Mehran Valley, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab.

He said there would be no protest in Hepatitis Filter Clinics and all the doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff would serve the humanity from the core of their hearts and would remain present every time.

The chief minister appealed to young doctors to end occasional protests and serve humanity as it is not appropriate that patients are dying in the hospitals due to non-availability of doctors whereas young doctors are protesting on roads and streets, he said, adding if there is any problem regarding your salaries, bonuses or cars I am available and we can sort it out by sitting together but please do not leave the dismal humanity in lurch and serve them in true sense.

He said that Punjab is the only province where people attached with the medical profession are getting handsome salaries and this year the health budget is Rs260 billion.

The CM said if some dignitary goes to Services Hospital or any other government hospital then he/she is given VIP protocol and free medical facilities as well whereas if some poor patients go to the government hospitals they are treated the other way and even they die without any medicine and treatment.

He said he had provided approximately Rs1 billion for the treatment of liver patients in the last eight years because surgery of liver patients was not done in Pakistan and they had to travel to India, China, or other European country.

He said that non-availability of clean drinking water also led to hepatitis. It is due to this fact that Punjab government has introduced a large project for the provision of clean drinking water to the people of the province and this project has been initiated from South Punjab.

Even Pakistan is a nuclear country but there is no respect of this green passport and we do not deserve to be treated in the way we are treated. Pakistan has to give guidance to Islamic world from Casablanca to Kuala Lumpur but today Pakistan itself is mired in difficulties. In 1940, hundreds of thousands of people got together in Iqbal Park and approved resolution for the attainment of a separate country. As the 23rd March is approaching; therefore, we have to learn from our past mistakes and come forward for the progress of Pakistan.