Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz Sharif has approved a plan to improve 85 THQ hospitals and OPDs of all the hospitals in the province. While chairing a meeting to provide quality healthcare facilities to the people, the CM directed to complete ongoing healthcare schemes without delay as the best facilities are a right of the common man which must be provided to them. The standard of healthcare facilities in OPDs of all the hospitals would be improved in 6 to 8 months; he said and announced to supervise it personally. He also took notice of the shortage of doctors and paramedics and accorded approval to a programme to improve 85 THQ hospitals in the province. Alongside, the CM directed the health department to devise a roadmap to overcome the shortage of doctors and paramedics. The OPDs should be improved in the minimum possible time to provide every possible facility to the patients; he commented and regretted that the cleanliness arrangements were unsatisfactory during his visits to hospitals. Therefore, a comprehensive plan should be implemented for the cleanliness of the hospitals, he further said. The health secretary briefed about departmental performance and improvement of healthcare facilities. Special funds allocated for cancer patients’ treatment:Punjab Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique said on Tuesday that the provincial government had allocated special funds for treatment of cancer patients in the budget 2022-23. He was presiding over a meeting here at the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) to discuss the cancer patients’ problems. Punjab Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan, Additional Secretary Technical Dr Asim Altaf, Additional Secretary Drug Control Dr Sohail and officers of Novartis, a company manufacturing cancer drugs, were present in the meeting. The minister said that uninterrupted supply of medicines to registered cancer patients was being ensured in Punjab, adding that instructions had been issued to the officers concerned to facilitate registration of cancer patients in Punjab. He said that the Secretary Ali Jan Khan was monitoring measures to ensure supply of medicines to cancer patients, adding that the government striving to provide the best medical treatment facilities to registered cancer patients.