Rescue 1122 DG visits corona helpline centre

LAHORE:Punjab Emergency Service (PES) Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer Wednesday visited the Corona Rescue Helpline 1190 centre to review its performance. According to a spokesperson for the PES (Rescue-1122), the DG was briefed that since March 21, a total of 22,201 calls have been received at the Corona Rescue Helpline. The call centre team expressed concerns over the sudden change in the pattern of calls, as now no one was calling to get medical advice, but requesting for provision of ration packs. The DG Rescue said that the call pattern had changed from April 12, 2020. Out of total calls received at the helpline so far, 3,552 were related to corona medical advice and 17,268 were for ration request.

The other calls during this period included 343 corona testing queries, 336 suspected corona patient information, 92 public gathering complaints, 17 disinfection requests, 16 shifting requests and 577 feedback/ information seeking.

Earlier, Ms Deeba Shahnaz, head of the Community Safety and Information, informed the DG Rescue that, upon directions of Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, ration distribution activity had been launched by the Pakistan rescue team, along with field rescue offices of Lahore and Rawalpindi. A total of 40,529 ration packs had been distributed by the rescue teams in Lahore and Rawalpindi so far.

PMA: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has expressed concern over the Cabinet Division’s notification in which autonomous bodies of different divisions have been approved and notified but Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has not been approved as autonomous body. PMDC is constitutionally an autonomous regulatory body to regulate medical education and registration of medical professionals in the country, said PMA (Centre) Secretary General Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad in a statement here on Wednesday.

He said “PMA welcomes the formation of ad hoc council of PMDC by the Supreme Court of Pakistan but we have concerns over not giving any time frame to the ad hoc council to complete its task. We believe that the ad hoc council set-up is till the appointment/elections of the fresh council under the PMDC Ordinance 1962 and being an ad hoc set-up, the first and last priority of this ad hoc council is to conduct elections for the fresh council as given in PMDC Ordinance 1962.” He said it is noted with regret that the elections are not even on the agenda of the ad hoc council. “We would also mention here that the post of president of the council is an honorary post and no earlier president of even regular council has got any pay from PMDC, so under what moral or legal authority the president of an ad hoc council is being sanctioned pay from PMDC,” the PMA office-bearer said.

Farewell: On the eve of retirement of DSP PHP Headquarters Muhammad Naeem Tiwana, a farewell party was arranged in PHP Headquarters Lahore. Worthy Additional IGP PHP Capt (R) Zafar Iqbal Awan (Sitara-e-Imtiaz) presented souvenir to DSP Muhammad Naeem Tiwana. While paying tribute to DSP Naeem Tiwana for his excellent services in Punjab Police, Additional IGP said that DSP Naeem Tiwana has been a hardworking officer, an honest policeman and an obedient subordinate.He has served with honour.