National News

LAHORE, June 3 (APP): Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare
Khawaja Salman Rafiq and Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir jointly said on Saturday that new financial year will be the year of improvement and development for health sector.
They said that in the next financial year, additional Rs 55 billion
would be spent on health sector, as Rs 263 billion have been allocated
for Specialized Healthcare and Primary and Secondary Health.
Commenting on next year’s budget, both the ministers viewed that
government is paying more attention to Primary and Secondary Health and prevention of disease programme so that the disease burden could be
reduced and health facilities be made available at local level that
would be helpful for reducing patient load in the tertiary care hospitals.
They said that next year, all the THQ hospitals would be modernized and
100 mobile health units would also procured for easy access of people to
the health facilities at their doorstep.
They said that Rs 25 billion would be spent on Health Development
Schemes of Specialized Healthcare and Rs 16 billion on provision of free medicines to the people. They said that these initiatives reflect the poor friendly policies of Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif.
They said that availability of ventilators is a serious issue and
government has allocated Rs 400 million for the procurement of new ventilators to overcome this issue. Moreover, Rs 700 million would be spent on dialysis facilities for Kidney patients and Rs 3.5 billion have been earmarked for the provision of free medicines to hepatitis C patients.
Kh. Imran Nazir said that Rs 20 billion would be spent on construction
and repair and maintenance of DHQ and THQ hospitals and 20 new CT scan machines would also be provided to DHQ hospitals.
Imran Nazir added that CT scan machines and diagnostic services would
be run through public and private partnership. He said that one billion rupees have been allocated for the improvement of mother and child health facilities in 11 districts of south Punjab.
Minister Primary and Secondary Health said that first time government
has allocated huge funds for provision of free medicines. He said that
Rs 10 billion have been allocated for the provision of free medicines in Primary and Secondary Healthcare Hospitals which is a record.
The Health Ministers were of the view that allocation for health sector
development for the next fiscal year reflects the patient friendly policies of the government. They hoped that the new financial year would be a year
of development for the health sector.