MULTAN: Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid has announced that the government is going to establish three mother and child healthcare hospitals in south Punjab while funds have also been allocated for Nishtar-II, Shaikh Zayed Hospital-II besides establishing six new hospitals in south Punjab.

She reiterated that Prime Minister Imran Khan had categorically made it clear that no state-run hospital would be privatised.

Talking to the media after attending 6th meeting of the Nishtar Medical University Syndicate here on Sunday, she said the PML-N government in Punjab was limited to Raiwind and the cheques worth Rs100bn issued by the previous government were dishonoured.

She said the funds allocation for health in the budget had been increased and new hospitals would be established in south Punjab.

“Many health projects were left unfinished by the PML-N which had to be completed while new hospitals would also be established. The previous government wasted funds on the projects like the Orange Train but the PTI government has allocated Rs200bn for health in the budget out of which more than Rs47bn are only for development,” she said.

Replying to a question regarding the court stay against the suspension of Nishtar Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Ashiq Malik, the minister said she had requested the Lahore High Court chief justice not to issue stay orders in favour of officers of the health department facing corruption charges.

She claimed equal distribution of funds in the budget had been done for the first time and the south Punjab would get its due share. She said health cards would be distributed among 0.8 million people by the end of July while more than 4,000 people had benefited from the Insaf Health Card till now.

Yasmin Rashid said that 11,000 new doctors had been recruited while work was underway to make 2,422 basic health units functional round the clock.

She claimed that medicines were provided to the hospitals but to get benefits from pharmaceutical companies, doctors did not prescribe the medicines available in the hospital.

Earlier, presiding over the Syndicate meeting, the minister issued directions to make the outdoor department of Nishtar Hospital fully air-conditioned, upgrade the paramedical school to a college and ensure availability of medicines in the hospital round the clock.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2019