LAHORE, Nov 1: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has announced a 50 per cent increase in the remuneration of doctors doing house job and of postgraduate trainees, constituting a committee to submit recommendations for improvement in healthcare facilities in hospitals of the province.

The chief minister announced this during a meeting with a 45-member delegation of doctors here on Saturday.

During the meeting, various aspects of health sector upgrade and patients’ treatment in hospitals was also discussed. Principals, professors and chief executives of different medical colleges also attended the meeting.

Shahbaz Sharif, comparing England’s health services with those in Pakistan, said everybody should be provided healthcare irrespective of his or her creed, cast or status. He regretted that here only elites got standard healthcare whereas hundreds of thousands of poor patients were denied the same.

He said improvement in healthcare facilities should be ensured through proper planning.

The government, he said, was initiating the process by raising the remuneration of doctors and improving their service structure. The doctors should now take practical steps to ensure provision of quality healthcare to the patients, he added.

He said the doctors should go abroad for higher education but return for to their country to serve their fellow countrymen.

Meanwhile, presiding over another meeting held at the Chief Minister’s House to review the functioning of dialysis centres and availability of generators in the hospitals, Shahbaz Sharif said that government was spending one billion rupees on purchase of generators which would be made available to the private hospitals as well. More the 60 dialysis machines were also being flown into the country for providing free treatment facilities to kidney patients, he added.

He said dual-kit generators should be acquired for the hospitals so that these could be operated on gas and diesel.

The MNAs and MPAs should visit hospitals in their constituencies for preparation of a comprehensive report for provision of generators and dialysis machines and posting of necessary staff.

He expressed dissatisfaction over unsanitary conditions in Services Hospital and directed the medical superintendent to ensure cleanliness there within a month.

Briefing the chief minister, earlier, Punjab Health secretary said that four dialysis machines would be installed at each district headquarters hospital at a cost of Rs540 million. One of the machines would be used for hepatitis-C screening.