LAHORE:The Punjab government has ensured free medical treatment worth over Rs36.5 billion for patients under various specialised healthcare programmes through empanelled hospitals, as part of its efforts to improve healthcare facilities across the province.
Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique stated this while chairing the 120th meeting of the Board of Directors of the Punjab Health Initiative Management Company (PHIMC), where a detailed briefing was given on various healthcare projects launched by the chief minister. The board also approved the minutes of its 119th meeting.
The minister said the chief minister’s special healthcare initiatives had significantly reduced waiting lists for adult cardiac care, cancer treatment, dialysis, stroke management, paediatric heart surgery and organ transplants. He directed the relevant hospitals to further accelerate efforts to clear the remaining waiting lists.
He said free treatment facilities worth Rs3 billion annually were being provided to heart patients under the Chief Minister’s Adult Cardiac Surgery Programme, while cancer patients were receiving free diagnostic tests, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and medical therapy under a special initiative costing Rs10 billion annually. Free stroke treatment facilities worth approximately Rs1.25 billion annually were also being provided.
Under the Chief Minister’s Children’s Heart Surgery Programme, more than 16,391 children had undergone free heart surgeries across Punjab, he said. These included 682 children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 422 from Azad Kashmir, 147 from Islamabad, 48 from Balochistan, 66 from Gilgit-Baltistan and 35 from Sindh.
The minister said 2,912 transplants had been performed under the chief minister’s transplant initiative, including 1,345 kidney transplants, 1,000 cochlear implants, 429 liver transplants, 70 bone marrow transplants and 68 corneal transplants.
He added that more than 2.484 million dialysis sessions had been provided free of charge under the Chief Minister’s Dialysis Programme, while 50,753 patients had been registered at hospitals for dialysis services.
Under the cancer initiative, more than 48,188 patients had been registered at Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and other empanelled hospitals, while over 163,326 patients had received free cancer treatment. Meanwhile, more than 9,213 patients had been registered under the adult cardiac surgery programme, with over 2,409 patients having undergone free heart surgeries.
Khawaja Salman Rafique said all available resources were being utilised to provide quality healthcare facilities to the people of Punjab.
Secretary of the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department Azmat Mehmood stressed the need to provide maximum facilities to patients at empanelled hospitals. He said instructions had been issued to resolve patients’ problems at these hospitals on a priority basis.
The meeting was attended by Board member Dr Shujaat Ali, Member Health (PandD) Shafqat Ali and Additional Secretary Finance Zubda Mubashir through video link. Chairman of the Chief Minister’s Advisory Committee on Cardiology Dr Farqad Alamgir, Board member Parveen Agha, Punjab Healthcare Commission CEO Dr Saqib Aziz, PITB Director Nausheen Fayyaz, PHIMC CEO Dr Ali Razzaq and former DG Health Punjab and Board member Dr Zahid Pervaiz were also present.