Daily Times

Health related issues can only be addressed by using advanced medical technology, enhancement of investment in health sector and good training of health care professionals, said Vice Chancellor Health Services Academy (HSA) Prof Dr Shahzad Ali Khan on Sunday.

The Vice Chancellor said medical technology and production of better health care professionals can sort out the prevailing issues of the health sector in the country.

He was addressing a Memorandum of Understating (MoU) signing ceremony with the Rahmat Foundation. The purpose of the MoU was to provide teachers’ training to boost health care professional capabilities of teachers and medical students. The ceremony was attended by the Medical professionals, teachers, medical students and Pakistan Medical Association Islamabad General Secretary Dr Mubasher Mushtaq Daha.

As per MoU, both institutions will provide support to each other in the field of medicine as the foundation is supposed to provide training of medical teachers, training of medical students and other facilities. Moreover, the promotion of mutual cooperation between the two institutions is also put part of the agenda.

Besides this, the Rehmat Foundation will provide support in establishing understanding with various medical universities also in America and Dr. Mubasher Hanif declared a focal person in order to make best arrangements to enhance the core purpose of the plan.

Dr Shahzad further recalled that there is a wide scope of doing research and it could be possible only through good health professionals.

On the occasion, Chairman of the foundation Dr. Allam Qadir it was direly needed to start such training programs for healthcare professionals on district and tehsil-level hospitals as it will enhance their skill and capacity in order to manage complicated patients at periphery-level hospitals.

Such measures, he suggested, will also help the local population to get treatment and surgeries at their doorstep as well as reduce the burden on big hospitals of respective vicinities.

According to the MoU, the the Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable organization organized as a Michigan nonprofit corporation whose goals include improving the healthcare of Pakistani residents by enhancing medical education through virtual lectures, case conferences and medical services for students and connecting professionals and institutions in Pakistan with their counterparts in the United States

Meanwhile, Minister for National Health Services (NHS) Abdul Qadir Patel has directed the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) and other stakeholders to make arrangements to provide an opportunity to child prisoners to become doctors, nurses and study allied health sciences.

He said children confined in jails across the country should have been allowed to take admission to the medical colleges for Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), nursing colleges and allied health sciences.

According to a NHS official privy to the development stated that under the plan all public sector universities will be made bound to ensure that prison child and prisoners would be able to sit the admission tests of medical and dental colleges and attend classes.