LAHORE: The Punjab government is going to establish thalassaemia centres in paediatric wards of every district headquarter (DHQ) hospitals across the province. The centres will be equipped with all diagnostic facilities, and will also cover curative aspect through provision of injection ‘desferol’, blood components transfusion facility and other needful medication. For the purpose, a meeting to make deliberations and recommendations in order to extend the scope of the Punjab Thalassaemia Prevention Programme across the province was held here at the Civil Secretariat on Tuesday with Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja in the chair. The meeting stressed the need to provide job security to current project workers, and decided to raise awareness among thalassaemia patients to ward off the disease. It was also decided to transform the Punjab Thalassaemia Prevention Programme into an IT-proficient project, and called for legislation on thalassaemia screening of spouses before marriage on mandatory basis. The meeting also recommended the Punjab government to introduce ‘Health and Hygiene’ as a compulsory subject at different levels from class 6th to class 10th both in public and private educational institutions. The additional chief secretary expressed hope that the Punjab government would also ponder over the establishment of ‘Punjab Health TV Channel’ to impart awareness as well as distant-training. Shamail Khawaja mentioned that the Punjab government had utilised Rs 200 million on provision of bone marrow transplant facility to thalassaemia patients during the last two years at the Institute of Child Health, Lahore. Institute of Child Health and Children Hospital Medical Director Dr Ahsan Waheed Rathore, Professor of Paediatric Department Dr. Akmal Laeeq, Punjab Thalassaemia Prevention Programme Project Director Dr Shabnam Bashir, Planning and Development Board (Member Health) Dr Shabana Haider, Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Special Secretary Dr Sajid Mehmood Chohan, Additional Secretary (Technical) Dr Salman Shahid and Additional Secretary (Staff) Ashiq Hussain Olakh attended the meeting.