LAHORE: Caretaker Punjab Health Minister Dr Jawad Sajid Khan has directed the Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Department to take necessary steps for making the Wazirabad Institute of Cardiology fully functional. He directed arrangements for cardiac surgeries be completed and emergency service immediately be introduced.
He expressed these views during a departmental briefing by the SH&ME department here on Wednesday, according to a handout issued here. Secretary Health Najam Ahmad Shah briefed the minister regarding the performance of department and the initiatives and development carried out in health sector. Special Secretary Health (Admin) Saqib Manan, Special Secretary (Dev) Usman Muazzam and Prof Mehmood Shuakat were present in the briefing.
Najam Ahmad Shah told the minister that during the last five years, five thousand beds have been included in the treasury care hospitals out of which three thousand beds have been added during the last two years.
Twelve mega projects have been completed at a cost of Rs26 billion in two years. Surgical Tower of Mayo Hospital is one of them is fully functional now.
He said operation theatres of WIC have been completed and all the equipment and machinery have been installed there. Moreover, a professor of cardiac surgery has also been posted in WIC. He hoped that within a week or two bypass cardiac surgery would be started at the institution.
The minister observed that billions of rupees of national exchequer have been spent on health sector development and the benefits of this development should directly be reached to the poor and deserving patients visiting to these hospitals.
The secretary health said liver transplant centre of Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore has been upgraded at a cost of Rs 400 million whereas four state-of-the-art burn centres in Mayo Hospital Surgical Tower, Nishtar Hospital Multan, Jinnah Hospital Lahore and Allied Hospital Faisalabad are fully functional.
He said that central induction policy for postgraduate trainee doctors has been introduced and all the online inductions were made purely on merit in a transparent manner.
He said extra numbers have been allocated for periphery services for PG induction due to that a large number of doctors have been reached at basic health units and out of 2500 BHUs almost 2400 BHUs have got medical officers. He said no PG trainee doctor is now unpaid and all the slots have been made as paid. He said a large number of doctors have got admission to those specialties which were facing dearth of specialist doctors.
The minister directed for conducting inspection of 901 ventilators installed in the teaching hospitals. Dr Jawad Sajid Khan said a group of senior radiologists be constituted for online consultancy and reading of CT scan tests for correct diagnosis.
He appreciated the administrative capabilities of Secretary Health Najam Ahmad Shah and praised the initiatives taken for the development and improvement of specialized healthcare services.
