LAHORE: The healthcare facilities being provided at the Services Hospital are worse than those at any other hospital in the province, regrets Punjab caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

Addressing doctors at the Services Institute of Medical Sciences (Sims) here on Wednesday,

Mr Naqvi observed: “I will not even refer my enemy to the Services Hospital. I visited hospitals all over Punjab, but did not find such poor conditions as in the Services Hospital.”

Doctors alone were not responsible for the flaw, he said, adding that the government should equally share the responsibility for it.

Sharing an incident he witnessed at a hospital in Multan, he said that he found five children being treated on a single bed.

He expressed gratitude to the doctors for their unwavering commitment despite such unfavorable conditions in the province’s hospitals.

The chief minister said while new hospitals are being constructed, old ones often receive little attention.

He highlighted the importance of providing adequate facilities to doctors to enable them to perform their duties efficiently.

Mr Naqvi reaffirmed his commitment to spend unlimited funds in the coming months to improve the hospital.

He said he could not understand why the government hospitals could not match the standards of the private ones.

He stressed that if senior doctors don’t complete their duty hours, it will set a negative example for the lower staff to follow.

Taking notice of shortage of life-saving injections for the patients having paralysis, he ordered provision of the same for their treatment.

Meanwhile, on the orders of the chief minster health department decided to redesign the OPD, emergency, and children’s blocks of the Mayo Hospital to provide better facilities to the patients.

The chief minister also ordered that the number of nurses in the ICUs should be increased on a priority basis.

“The implementation of the plan to outsource MRI, CT Scan, andangiography services has been initiated,” he said, adding that central stores would be hired for medicines storage in the hospitals.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2023