No hospital being privatised: Yasmin Rashid

LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Health Dr. Yasmin Rashid has said that under the Medical Teaching Institutions Act, the government is not going to privatise any public sector hospital.

She said that revolutionary measures were being taken by the government to facilitate people in the health sector. She expressed the views at a joint press conference with Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Information Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan and Provincial Minister for Information Punjab Mian Aslam Iqbal at DGPR office here on Saturday.

Dr. Yasmin Rashid strongly condemned the rumours being spread regarding the privatisation of public sector hospitals. She said that the government was spending Rs4.5m annually on one batch in a government hospital.

She said the basic purpose to introduce the MTI Act was to ensure the provision of best healthcare facilities to the common man. Neither administrative nor financial power was given to any government hospital in the act introduced in 2003.

She said that by bringing better administration under the MTI Act, quality healthcare facilities would be ensured to patients in public sector hospitals. Directors will be appointed to government hospitals, who will be fully responsible in all affairs of hospitals.

She said that during one year the PTI government had recruited more than 15,000 doctors on merit. Sehat Insaaf Cards have been distributed to the common man in 28 districts of the Punjab under which a family would be able to access medical facilities up to Rs. 720,000 free of cost.

Annually, three audits would be conducted to all teaching institutions under the MTI Act and the board of governors would be changed any time for negligence. Performance reports of medical teaching institutions would be presented in the assembly and promotions of doctors and professors would be linked with performance.

She said that the government had a right to ask about the performance after giving the employment. She said the government wanted to run outdoor services even in the evening under the act. She said that treatment expenditures of deserving patients in outdoors would be borne by the government.

She said the provision of best healthcare facilities in the government hospitals of Punjab was the basic point of the PTI manifesto. She said that the system of government hospitals had been ruined due to former corrupt governments.

Firdous Ashiq Awan said that providing relief to the people by introducing reforms in every sector of life was the top priority of Prime Minister Imran Khan. One year performance of the Punjab government is highly appreciable. She said the PTI government had formulated policies by focusing on the solution of problems of the common man.

Provincial Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal said that confusion was being created among the masses about the Act. The government believes in spending people’s money on their welfare, he added.

UET admissions: University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Lahore, has issued schedule for undergraduate admissions to its main campus and sub-campuses, including Kala Shah Kaku campus, Rachna College of Engineering & Technology (UET-RCET), Gujranwala, Faisalabad campus and Narowal for the year of 2019.

The candidates can get undergraduate prospectus, fill online forms and submit application forms till 4pm on September 16, 2019.

The admissions have been started to various disciplines of engineering and technology like electrical, computer, mechanical, industrial and manufacturing, mechatronics and control, civil, architectural, transportation, environmental, chemical, polymer, metallurgical and materials, petroleum and gas, mining, geological, architecture, city and regional planning, product and industrial design, bio-medical engineering and textile engineering technology.

The tests of the candidates applying on Hafiz-e-Quran and sports basis will be conducted on Sept 18 and Sept 19, respectively.

The 1st merit list for every discipline will be displayed on Sept 20 and the candidates on the fist list would submit their documents and dues till Oct 30. The second merit list will be displayed on Oct 1 and students would submit their documents and dues till Oct 4.

The third merit list will be displayed on Oct 7 and the students on the third list will submit their documents and dues till Oct 10, 2019. The fourth merit list will be displayed on Oct 11 and students would submit their documents and dues till Oct 15 on Tuesday. Regular classes will be started from Oct 14, 2019.

PhDs: Punjab University has awarded PhDs to five scholars.

Rasul Bakhsh Behram, son of Qadir Bakhsh Khan, has been awarded a PhD in the subject of physics after approval of his thesis entitled “Fundamental Properties of Cubic Perovskites (ABO­3): ab-initio Study;’ Muhammad Rashid, s/o Hafiz Mukhtar Ahmad, molecular biology after approval of his thesis entitled ‘Molecular Basis of Autosomal Recessive Intellectual Disability in Pakistani Population;’ Samina Zia d/o Zia Ul Hassan Sheikh in art & design after approval of her thesis entitled ‘Derelict Woodwork from Architectural Structures, Andrun Bhati, Lauhari and Delhi Gates, Lahore;’ Khalil Ahmed, s/o Muhammad Latif, in chemistry after approval of his thesis entitled ‘Synthesis and Characterisation of High Dielectric Constant Polymer Composites’ and Khalid Mahmood, s/o Muhammad Idrees, in library and information science after approval of his thesis entitled ‘Measuring Service Quality in College Libraries of Pakistan.’