Govt to welcome Danish help to control diabetes: minister

LAHORE

Provincial Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Kh Salmna Rafiq has said that Punjab government is paying special attention to health sector development and concrete steps have been taken for introducing reforms and provision of health facilities, including tertiary care hospitals.

“Punjab government will welcome the cooperation offered by Danish government for providing training, theory and practical, for doctors, nurses and health educationists to control diabetes in Punjab,” he said while talking to Danish Ambassador in Pakistan Ole Thonke who called on him on Friday, according to a hand out issued here. 

On the occasion, Royal Danish Embassy Commercial Advisor Aslam Pervaiz, Novo Nordisk Pharma Project Manager Dr Kashif Sohail,Health Additional Secretary (Technical) Dr Salman Shahid, Prof Khadija Irfan from Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore, Prof Irfan and other officers were also present.

It was informed that Diabetic forum was established with the collaboration of Denmark and an MoU was also signed between Health Department and the Denmark company to prevent diabetes. Now to enhance this cooperation, it has been decided to start pilot project for the training of doctors, nurses and health educators to handle diabetic patients. Dr Khadija Irfan informed that refresher courses for doctors of public sector hospitals of Sheikhupura, Gujranwala and Sialkot had been finalised for the first phase. The training programme will start from the first week of July.

Kh Salman Rafiq observed that diabetes was spreading fast which was a basic cause of cardiac diseases, blindness and renal failure for which latest concepts and technology should be introduced to control the disease. He said that after completion of the pilot project, training programme for physicians would be launched at all divisional headquarters. It was said that all the logistics support and expenditure of training would be met by Novo Nordisk Pharma. 

The ambassador of Denmark said that Pakistanis had extraordinary talent due to which they were serving all over the world. Ole Thonke shared his experience while he was ambassador in Kenya he met the secretary health of Kenya who was a Pakistani doctor. He said that it was his first interaction with Pakistanis which provided him with an opportunity to know about Pakistani people and culture.

PhD awarded: Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) has awarded a PhD to a candidate, Shazia Pervaiz, in Environmental Science.

According to a press release, she completed her research for PhD in Environmental Science titled “Isolation of Eco-Friendly Leather Dyes from the Indigenous Plants of Central and Northern Punjab for Green Economy” under the supervision of Prof Dr Tahira Aziz Mughal, professor of Environmental Science at LCWU.