Daily Times

Health and education are considered to be the two major factors for putting a country on the path of progress and prosperity worldwide because no country can make headways without focusing on them. The quality of life index of a country for its citizens can be gauged from the quality of education and health being provided and how much the subsequent government is spending on these two sectors. Punjab being the biggest province in term of population, needs more health facilities to cater its growing population. Its southern part is home to 32 percent (34.7 million) people residing in three divisions including Multan, Bahawalpur and DG Khan, where a large number of people dwell in rural areas.

Besides Tertiary Care Teaching Hospitals in major cities, it has District Headquarter, Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals, Basic Health Units (BHUs), Rural Health Centres (RHCs) and dispensaries to cater its rural population. Multan being the centre of South Punjab, has Nishtar Hospital, the biggest health facility with 1700 beds, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology (CPEIC), Children Complex, Multan Institute of Kidney Diseases (MIKD), Shehbaz Sharif Hospital, Pak Italian Modern Burn Unit, Fatima Jinnah Hospital and some town hospitals in the public sector for catering patients from across the region.

Patients not only from South Punjab, but Balochistan and KPK pour into Nishtar Hospital as it is the only general hospital in Multan and geographically located in the middle of the country. Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department South Punjab, Mahar Hayat Lak said that BHUs were working round the clock wherein Out Patients Department (OPD), Emergency, Preventive Services (Immunization) Ultrasound, OTP sites and schoolchildren screening services were available.

As far as health infrastructure in rural South Punjab is concerned, the region has 578 BHUs, 112 RHCs and 380 dispensaries. He informed that as many as 1034 ambulances were catering to the patients in rural areas in addition to ECG, Dental Unit, X-Ray Unit, MLC and TB clinics working in RHCs. Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur has also been serving masses of the area since long and 200 bedded Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Buzdar Institute of Cardiology in DG Khan will also facilitate cardiac patients in future. Lak maintained that the Punjab government had injected billions of rupees for improving health infrastructure in the region especially after establishment of South Punjab Secretariat and added that modern machinery and provision of medicines were the top priority. “A healthy body carries a healthy mind and of course, health is the real wealth,” the secretary commented.