Punjab to help improve GB health sector

LAHORE
ADVISER to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique has said that on the direction of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab government would extend full cooperation to the Gilgit-Baltistan government for health sector development and revamping of healthcare delivery system.
He said Punjab Health Department would prepare a comprehensive programme for capacity-building of doctors, nurses and paramedics of Gilgilt-Baltistan. Salman Rafique said the Gilgit-Baltistan governor and chief minister had recently met Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and requested for cooperation in developing health sector of their province.
He was talking to Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Secretary Tahir Husain, who called on him at the Civil Secretariat, according to a handout issued here Friday.
The Gilgit-Baltistan chief secretary said that cooperation of Punjab Health Department was required for capacity building of human resource and development of health infrastructure sector for catering to medical needs of the people of the area. Secretary Health said that setting up of nursing and paramedics schools in Gilgit-Baltistan was another pressing requirement as there was no such institute for this purpose.
Moreover, health centres and hospitals are insufficient in numbers while diagnostic equipment and latest biomedical machinery is also required. He said that hospitals in Gilgit-Baltistan were facing shortage of specialists in different disciplines.