PA speaker orders audit of Mobile Health Unit project

LAHORE” Punjab Assembly Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi has directed Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid to audit Mobile Health Unit project initiated in the year 2010-11.

“These mobile units have failed to deliver. An audit must be held to find facts behind wastage of money on them,” the speaker said during a question-hour session at PA related to health sector on Monday.

Minister for Health Dr Yasmeen Rashid responded to the queries related to Primary and Secondary Health Care and Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education. The speaker during the question-hour session repeatedly drew comparison of the situation of the health sector between his and Shahbaz Sharif’s era.

He also voiced concern over the absence of anesthetists in Punjab hospitals and directed the health minister to address this issue on priority and even recruit anesthetists from UK like his government did to address the problem of people. Mian Muhammad Shafi, a legislator from Rahimyar Khan, in his question took up the issue related to the Mobile Health Unit after which the House was told that in the beginning, six MHUs were set up in the fiscal year 2010-11 and later 14 more were established in 2017-18.

The PA was further told that through an outsourced model, the MHUs were handed over to a private company named Medi-Urge which was responsible for the payment of workers associated with the Mobile Health Units.

To a question related to the delayed payments to the MHUs workers, the minister stated the Health Department had directed the private company to immediately pay the dues.

Dr Yasmeen Rashid over the failure of Mobile Health Units stated that in most of the rural parts, it was impossible for them to move on a narrow road structure and reach the place where it was needed.

The Speaker on the occasion remarked that a lot of money had been wasted on this project which failed to deliver and instructed the department concerned to hold audit. On this, PML-N legislator from Bahawalnagar, Dr Mazhar Iqbal Ch, while defending Mobile Health Units stated that they were proving quite helpful for people of Punjab and cited the example of Haroonabad where people were benefiting from it. He said claims regarding the size and difficulty in movement in most of the Punjab roads were not true.

To another question related to lack of health facilities in the Govt Hospital for Maternity and General Outdoor, UC-134, Karol Ghaati, the minister said the hospital had been functional but due to shortage of anesthetists, operations could not be conducted in the centre.

She said in the last 10 years, the entire province was confronting the issue related to the shortage of anesthetists but nothing was done on which the chair instructed the minister to take up the matter in cabinet. Calling for steps to overcome the shortage of anesthetists, Pervaiz Elahi said in his tenure as CM, they were even brought from England.

WAZIRABAD INSTITUTE OF CARDIOLOGY: During the question-hour session, the Punjab Assembly was told that the Wazirabad Institute of Cardiology established with a cost of Rs 1700 million had finally been made function in June 2018. Dr Yasmin Rashid said it started working in June 2018, under the interim set-up and experts related to the fields of surgery and angiography were working there.

The House was told that angiography and heart surgeries were going on in the institute whereas latest and modern equipment and machinery had also been provided. It was further told that it was a 100-bed hospital and so far there had been no complaint regarding ‘missing facility’ in the hospital.

Children Hospitals in Punjab: Dr Yasmin Rashid told the PA that in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan Children Hospitals had been set up. Allocations had been earmarked for 200 bedded Mother and Child Hospital in Attock, Mianwali, Bahawalnagar, Layyah and Rajanpur. To another question, Dr Yasmeen Rashid said the Punjab government would fill all vacant seats on merit.