Daily Times

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar chaired a meeting at his office on Wednesday to review progress on health department schemes. The meeting also dilated on the provision of Sehat Insaf cards to the whole of the population in Punjab. Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, Advisor (Health) Muhammad Hanif Pitafi, Principal Secretary to CM, secretaries of finance, P&D, specialized health & medical education, primary & secondary health and others attended the meeting.

The CM issued directions for speedy completion of ongoing projects adding that three new trauma centres and the emergency block will be started in Lahore. A 200-bed new emergency block will be erected in the services hospital along with an improvement in medical and building facilities. He directed to submit the hospital’s emergency block and building structure plans within seven days along with the master plan of doctors and paramedics residences. The participants deliberated upon the proposal to construct three separate residential towers for doctors and other staff.  The CM disclosed that another 300-bedded trauma centre and the emergency block will be built over 56 Kanal land in front of Jinnah Hospital. Meanwhile, a 1000-bed hospital will also be built at Ferozpur Road over 123 Kanal with a separate block of 200 beds for thalassemia patients. A 300-bed trauma centre and the emergency block will be constructed in the hospital; the CM told and directed to timely dispose of allied matters. State of the art facilities will be provided in new emergency blocks and trauma centres to meet the growing needs of the provincial metropolis, he stated.

The CM directed to expedite work on mother and child hospitals being constructed in far-flung areas to attend to the patients’ medical needs. The mother and child hospitals should be completed according to their timeframe, he continued. The foundation stone of the mother and child hospital will be laid soon in Attock while the areas have been identified in Rajanpur and Bahawalnagarj districts for this project, he said. Similarly, the mother and child hospital will be made functional in Mianwali next year while the project tendering process of the mother and child hospital in Layyah has been started.

Along with it, the mother and child block will be completed early in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital; he responded and affirmed that this project is very important to protect the health of mother and child. No notable health project could be finished in the past which resulted in increasing the death rate; the CM lamented and announced that Punjab Agriculture Food and Drug Authority will be made functional early. Funds will be provided on a priority basis for early completion of Nishtar-II Hospital Multan and Sh. Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan; the CM assured and hoped that the new OPD block of Ch. Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology Multan will facilitate the patients there.

The chief minister directed to timely complete the Fatima Jinnah Institute of Dental Sciences Jubilee Town and termed universal health coverage programme a novel step and repeated that every citizen will get universal health insurance. The citizens of Sahiwal and DG Khan divisions have been provided universal health insurance in the first phase, he said. No such healthcare programme is introduced by any government as the PTI-led government will provide quality medical facilities at the doorsteps of the people, concluded the CM.

Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Chaudhary MNA and Muhammad Tariq Tarar MPA from Mandi Bahauddin district called on Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar at his office and apprised him about their constituencies’ related problem.

Talking on this occasion, the CM iterated that constituencies related problems are being solved on a priority basis adding that parliamentarians’ proposals are given importance in devising Rs.360 billion district development packages to ensure composite development in the province. I am personally monitoring the development schemes as public service is the core agenda of the government, he replied. I have never been concerned about criticism for the sake of criticism as public service is my passion, the CM recapitulated. There is no room for negative politics and, regrettably, the opposition has no concrete agenda for the people, stressed Usman Buzdar. The opposition is disappointed after failure in hoodwinking the people, he remarked. Activating their atrophy politics is the main agenda of the opposition, the CM declared. The politicising of the non-issues has failed at every occasion; he said and resolved that a new record of public service will be set in the next two years. Haji Imtiaz Chaudhary termed the district development package as unique while Tariq Tarar appreciated that parliamentarians were consulted to devise the package.

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has sought a report from RPO Bahawalpur about rape-cum-murder of a girl in Minchinabad and directed to early arrest the accused adding that perpetrators of the crime deserve stringent punishment. He also extended sympathies to the heirs.