Advisor to the Chief Minister for Health Riaz Anwar on Monday said that the provincial government has decided to release more than five billion rupees to the health department to address the shortage of medical equipment and emergency and essential medicines at the government hospitals. He said that in the next few days, mandatory medicines would be purchased for hospitals at the local level, adding that due to shortage of funds, the specific amount for purchase of medicines and medical equipment by the government hospitals could not be released during the current financial year. He said that the Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ghulam Ali also highlighted the issue and wrote a letter to the interim Chief Minister for release of funds. Riaz said that the approval of the funds required for essential medicines in the hospitals has been taken from the cabinet. He said the funds would be utilized for the purchase of medicines for the public sector hospitals besides payment of arrears to the employees.