Hospitals on contract prove Punjab govt’s failure: Pervaiz Elahi

LAHORE: PML-Q leader Ch Pervaiz Elahi has said after seeking donations for Rescue 1122, the Punjab government has announced giving government hospitals on contract, which is a proof of its failure.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Pervaiz Elahi said canteens were given on contract in government hospitals but nobody could even imagine that any government could give hospitals on contract, this step not only amounts to playing with lives of people but also violation of the Constitution of Pakistan because after 18th Amendment, health sector has been declared a provincial subject fully and the hospitals under the federal government were now also running under the provincial government as such no provincial government could escape from this constitutional obligation.
He said he had increased budget of health department as much as 134 per cent during his tenure, for the first time in the history of Pakistan. Patients were provided free medicines in government hospitals, revolutionary service like 1122 was started which saved thousands of lives so far, most modern cardiology hospitals were set up in Faisalabad and Wazirabad, new emergency blocks and operation theatres were provided in big and district headquarters hospitals but brutality of Shahbaz Sharif can be judged from the bitter fact that some of the mega health projects which we had started have either been completely scrapped and funds of others including Fatima Jinnah Institute of Dental Sciences, Punjab Institute of Neurosurgery, Surgical Town Mayo Hospital, Burn Centre Jinnah Hospital have been stopped, he added.
He said Wazirabad Cardiology Hospital established by him for the districts of Gujranwala Division had not been made functional for seven years due to which about four thousand heart patients had expired so far. He said it was clear from these steps of the Punjab government that health sector was not among the priorities of the Punjab government and all its claims in this regard were merely white lies.