First convocation: Deliberations sought on ways to improve service delivery

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Friday that there was no shortage of funds for the public health sector in the province. He urged public health experts to get together and deliberate on ways to improve service delivery.

He was speaking at the first convocation ceremony of the University of Health Sciences (UHS).

Sharif said the funds allocated for the health sector this year were more than those allocated in any other year in the past.

He said all stakeholders needed to play their roles in order to improve service delivery. “Experts, government officials and the political leadership should fulfil their responsibilities honestly,” he said.

Sharif said there was a need to learn from the experiences of other countries which had improved their health sector indicators. “Cuba has performed exceptionally well in the health sector. We should learn from its experience,” he said.

Sharif lauded the role of UHS in promotion of quality medical education and assured the university administration of his support.

On the death of 14 children from diphtheria (a bacterial infection) at the Children Hospital, he said a committee had been formed to investigate the matter. He said strict action would be taken against officials concerned if negligence of duties was responsible for the deaths.

Earlier, UHS Vice Chancellor Maj Gen (r) Muhammad Aslam urged the graduates to identify problems in their field of interest and propose solutions for them.

He said more than 60,000 students were registered with the university for its programmes in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, allied health sciences and nursing.

He said the university had 393 publications and over 1,000 citations in indexed journals to its credit in last 5 years.

Earlier, degrees were awarded to 547 graduates including 16 doctorates of philosophy (PhDs),

353 master’s of philosophy (MPhil), 87 master’s of science (MSc), 59 master’s of medical technology, 17 masters of science (nursing), eight doctors of medicine (MD) and seven MDS.

Doctorate degrees were awarded to Fahim Haider Jafari (anatomy), Nashi Khan (clinical psychology),  Afia Hasnain (physiology), Waseem Haider (forensic medicine), Shadab Ahmed Butt (anatomy),  Muhammad Barkaat Hussain (microbiology), Mamoona Nasim (anatomy), Muhammad Imran (cellular and molecular biology), Sobia Rana (cellular and molecular biology), Nadeem Afzal (immunology), Samina Khokher (surgery), Adeela Uzma (physiology), Junaid Sarfraz Khan (medical education), Sidrah Saleem (microbiology), Arham Shabbir (pharmacology), Sajjad Ullah (human genetics).

As many as 49 graduates were given Best Graduate Gold Medal for their exceptional performance in university exams. The Hajvery Foundation Gold Medal for best graduate in the MPhil programme was awarded to Najeeb Ullah of the UHS. The BA Yazdani Gold Medal was given to Nayha Enver of d’Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2015.